The Arbitrary Adventures of an Accidental Terrorist, a National Youth Theatre show, is inspired by an extraordinary event. In February this year Adeel Akhtar, an NYT member, was flying from London to New York when his innocent presence caused a major security panic. His Air India flight was intercepted by four fighter jets, he was taken away for questioning by the FBI on landing and he found himself at the centre of an international news story.
You could do many things with that event. You could, if you were really clever, construct a Dario Fo farce on the lines of Accidental Death of an Anarchist, which clearly inspires the title. More realistically, you could offer a documentary reconstruction of the events and their aftermath - I would dearly love to know whether Akhtar was offered any explanation, apology or compensation.
What we actually get is a dream-like fantasy devised by director John Hoggarth and the 18-strong company about the nightmarish world of airport security and fluctuating identity. But, although decently performed, it is the least satisfactory option in that it replaces hideous reality with a whimsical surreality.
The essence of Akhtar's story was that a harmless student suddenly found himself, in the course of a routine flight, a terrorist suspect. It is a situation worthy of Kafka. But Hoggarth instantly sacrifices reality by having the hapless hero emerge from inside a suitcase. And what follows is largely a series of workshop exercises tailored to the personalities of individual performers. One actor's dry, clerical manner turns the airport security chief into an Alan Bennett-style joke vicar. Three leggy air hostesses get to sing an irrelevant Andrews Sisters-style number. And, possibly because Hoggarth once directed Edoardo Erba's Marathon, the hero is seen running on an airport travelator.
There is a good deal of philosophising about what makes a story. But, as Kafka's The Trial demonstrates, what actually makes a nightmarish story convincing is a wealth of circumstantial detail. Here, despite the existence of sinister interrogators, floral-shirted anarchists and Palestinian refugees, we seem to be in a world of theatrical fantasy. The one moment of truth comes when Shane Zaza, very good as the suffering hero, suddenly finds himself granted different identities by different people. Otherwise the show misses the real point: that "terrorism" is now so broadly defined, not least in America, as to give the state unprecedented, arbitrary power.
· Until September 14. Box office: 020-8741 2311.
