For a group of ex-students with too much time on their hands, charity begins in the flat above a kebab shop that they call home. Tom, who is handy with computers, fills an idle moment by generating an image of an angelic blonde child supposedly suffering from a rare disease. Rattling tins on the high street for the Derby McQueen appeal fund becomes a lucrative way to pay the rent.
But why stop there? The problem with Nick Lane's debut play is that, like its protagonists, it doesn't quite know how to quit while it's ahead. The con begins as a waggish rag-week stunt, but when the trio progress from filling charity buckets to offshore bank accounts, Lane strains credulity to its limit. I mean, Radiohead and Busted on the same benefit album? Surely not.
Of course there's nothing wrong with comic exaggeration if it serves a legitimate satiric purpose, and Lane strikes a plausible note with his suggestion that the nation might salve its conscience by giving generously to a dying princess who doesn't exist. Yet the play is written throughout in a tone of arch, student banter that veers towards the trite and tasteless. There are further irritations: Bob's habit of reciting classic song titles is characterisation-by-numbers, and Tom's demonstration of his "give-a-fuck-ometer" is frankly embarrassing.
But what really grates are the attempts to claim the moral high ground with direct addresses to the audience, challenging them to behave any better, before retreating to the moral low ground for a few more scurrilous giggles. The charitable sector is an intriguing subject for a more cogently argued polemic, but here, for the audience, the needle on Tom's device barely wavers.
· Until July 10. Box office: 01904 62356.
