Comic theatre is usually more rewarding than stand-up. You get a story, characters and theatrical invention - not just an ego. Not so with The Dinks. This is an attempt by three comedians - Dan Antopolski, Craig Campbell and Tony Law - to integrate their comic personas into an offhand playlet about alien invasion. Here we're in the realm of The Boosh: the duo whose freewheeling, surreal plays energised theatrical comedy some five years ago. But The Boosh were good.
The problems here are manifold. The trio are too cool to commit to their premise, which is that they share a yard somewhere in North America, fall out and are taken over by spacemen. The tone is set by Antopolski, a performer whose wit is undeniable but whose supercilious manner is always off-putting. The boyish Law affects similar superiority to the material: everything comes in quotation marks. Why should we care about their story if they care so little about it themselves?
There are points of interest. The spectacle of the trio leaping around in their giant rubber-spider alien costumes is irresistibly ridiculous. Some of Antopolski and Law's conceptual chit-chat is droll. Campbell plays grizzly and inarticulate. But the tale never accelerates beyond an amble, nor is there evidence of plotting or a point. The whole affair reeks of idle self-indulgence and disdain for the audience.
· Until August 25. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
