We don't get much in the way of new drama from New Zealand. Unfortunately, New Zealander James Griffin's drama doesn't amount to very much. A hit in Auckland, the play exposes the backstage dramas of a typically histrionic hospital soap. Ratings are on the slide, so the writers respond in the only way they know how, by condemning a leading character to a capricious and implausible death. Yet when the dim, out-of-contract actor catches wind of the plot, he heads for the writers' room bent on revenge.
Griffin has drawn on his own experiences as a scriptwriter to depict life on the soap production treadmill, a process that appears to involve a lot of slouching around and indulging in pastimes such as "shoot, shag or marry", in which everyone says what they would like to do with the characters of any given soap.
The chief problem is the manner in which Griffin contrives to thicken a plot about a roomful of thickos plotting. The idea of a written-out actor holding his writers to ransom is potentially intriguing, yet the supposedly "real" situation is made to seem as ludicrous as any fictional scenario, as the creatives continue to bicker, snipe and gossip even though one of their number has had his ear blown off.
David Freeman - a director more closely associated with grand opera than soap opera - presents a tightly organised production with a memorable contribution from morose Neighbours star Mark Little as the self-loathing lead writer. Yet I'm afraid that if I were to play my own round of "shoot, shag or marry", the result would be carnage.
· Until November 26. Box office: 01332 363275.
