This is a production that has all the panache and excitement of the jazz age allied to a play that has all the appeal of a warm cup of cocoa. One rather cancels the other out and the result is something that slips down easily but lacks any bite.
Anton Binder's script takes a tabloid approach to the story of Charlie Chaplin, at the height of his fame but with a fatal taste for sex with underage teenage girls. Chaplin dreams of conquering the film business by shedding his Little Tramp image, but when he falls for 15-year-old Lita and J Edgar Hoover gets on the case, what goes on in the bedroom soon has a marked effect on his professional life.
The performances are sharp, but even an actor as talented as George Dillon can do little with a character who begins as a small monster and ends up as a big one. With a play so keen on the salacious and so lacking in subtext, it's only the production - which mixes black-and-white film and still images with live action - that lends the 80 minutes the energy and buzz it needs.
Till August 21. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
