It's as exciting to encounter two extremely engaging new comedy performers as it is vexing that their material doesn't do them justice. Last year, Anna Crilly and Katie Wix's debut show, Penny Spubb's Party, saw them branded a cult in the making. This year, the "in the making" label still very much applies.
Their set has the feel of a broken sketch show. It's not so much lo-fi as no-fi, and several sketches peter out into awkward silence, lowered eyes and apologies to the audience. But that's OK. Most of what is thrilling about Prawn Free lies in that delicate, damaged rapport between performers and punters. Crilly and Wix are natural clowns. They're overgrown children, slightly wrongly dressed, forever throwing us butter-wouldn't-melt looks while subtly sabotaging one another's work onstage.
But the matter of the show isn't as fascinating as its manner. There are highlights: I liked Crilly and Wix posing as wannabe ladettes trying too hard to bond with the women in the audience. But elsewhere, there's an arbitrariness to their nonsense that gets wearing, whether they're playing Michael Bublé and his family or on a balloon safari or dressed as shrimps.
It's diverting, as far as it goes. But that's not far enough to maximise the talent of these subtle and charismatic performers. When the relationship between them, or their relationship with us, is in focus, you can't take your eyes off them.
· Until August 28. Box Office 0131 556 6550.
