Dolly Dhingra says that her new play was "inspired by a true crime". But there is all the difference in the world between factual and dramatic truth; and this story of a credit card fraud that goes badly wrong struck me as not just inherently implausible but also sketchily characterised and lacking in moral complexity. "Is it better to beg or steal?" asks one of Dhingra's seven, predominantly Asian characters during a New Year's Eve party in a run-down East End pub. Since one of their number manages rich clients' accounts for a leading credit card company, they opt for stealing. But what starts out as a midwinter night's dream turns into daylight robbery. Posing as celebrity big-spenders, these fraudulent friends go on a riotous shopping spree only to launch themselves eventually on a binge too far.
The news that money doesn't bring you happiness comes as no great revelation. But Dhingra's real problem is that she can't decide what her play is about. Is it an attack on the super rich and their high-spending recklessness? Or is it a satire on work-shy young Asians and their criminalised fecklessness? Dhingra backs her horse both ways. She implies the rich won't miss the odd superfluous extra on their quarterly bills. Yet, she shows these young Asians sounding off about the evils of big business while behaving like capitalist buccaneers. As a result, her play falls between every available stool.
Dhingra doesn't even pay much attention to character: the news that the credit company insider has been impregnated after a one-night stand is lazily imparted and just as quickly forgotten. And one is left to take what pleasure one can in Kully Thiarai's production jointly presented by Leicester Haymarket and the Tricycle. Alex Caan lends the supposed criminal mastermind a certain laid-back arrogance. Anushka Dahssi as the account manager brims with under-used sensuality. And Anil Desai goes plausibly to pieces as a traumatised tabla-player.
But, at a time when Asian theatre is promise-crammed, this strikes me as depressingly formulaic stuff. It's like a heist movie without the thrills. And, although deep-down it may be a plea for the old-fashioned work ethic, all it really proves is that crime doesn't play.
· Until April 2. Box office: 020-7328 1000. Then at Haymarket, Leicester, until April 23. Box office: 0870 330 3131.
