The finest laughs are the ones you don't understand. Discuss. For supporting evidence, we need look no further than Tommy and the Weeks, a surreal sketch show written and performed by the recent pairing of comic actor Ed Weeks and stand-up Tom Bell.
In many ways, theirs is a traditional feuding double-act, combining the stony-faced Weeks ("an 80s lawyer") with his sweet-natured minion Bell ("a Quentin Blake drawing"). Together, they cavort about the stage performing such roles as the ghetto Othello, Queen Elizabeth II impersonating Vin Diesel and Shibboleth the Truth Fawn, layering proceedings with running gags such as their obsession with Nando's and their need to drop an egg on to the floor whenever they are angry. Think Vic and Bob minus silly voices, plus university degrees.
As with all surreal comedy, however, not every idea can be a winner. Both Shibboleth and Othello, for instance, were gags that were still being unravelled five minutes after the audience had got them. And yet almost every time, just as I thought a sketch was shrivelling into awkward silence, Weeks and Bell were able to produce a line of such brilliant absurdity that all was forgiven.
Witness their opening scene, in which Bell plays an overwrought shepherd, gradually losing control of his flock before breaking down. I get the joke, smile, but do not laugh. And then: "I know, I know," says Weeks, wrapping a sympathetic arm around his weeping colleague, "we all hate the sheep sometimes." The same thing happened again towards the end of the show when the duo stage a wearily familiar double-act's argument, before Weeks casually rescues the situation by dropping an egg on the floor as he storms out.
After moments like this, even when the big laugh has long subsided, isolated individuals in the audience can still be heard chuckling uncontrollably to themselves. Frequently it was me. I still don't quite know why.
· Until August 27. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
