Jules Verne's 19th-century story about the quest for a fearsome monster who lurks in the ocean depths is a tale of adventure and dark secrets, but in Ade Morris's disappointing adaptation it is more of a flabby flounder than a whale of a tale.
Even when the monster of the deep turns out to be of the human kind in the shape of the sinister Captain Nemo, who is not a small lost fish as some of the more fish ignorant of us in the audience initially surmised. I have never read Verne's classic tale that, with its dreams of an electrically propelled submarine, the Nautilis, predated the invention of the electric light bulb by 11 years. Perhaps that accounts for the difficulty I and my two young companions experienced in following the twists and turns of the story.
Even now I am still slightly woolly as to what Nemo really intended to do and why the US government had sent every warship in the world to pursue him. But then you shouldn't have to know the book to follow a stage adaptation any more than you should need to read the script in order to enjoy a new play.
While Verne's imaginative leaps paid dividends, director Will Wollen has forgotten the dictum that keeping it simple in theatre is often the most effective way forward. This hyperactive production is never still for a moment and for every good idea, there's one that should have been discarded in the rehearsal room, including an entire scene played with a torch for lighting. The same inability to fillet seems to afflict Morris's script, which includes long meandering speeches and never really decides whether it is sending the story up or playing it straight.
The second half is an improvement, but it is an uneven and over-long evening that is seldom more than mildly diverting.
· Until May 6. Box office: 01635 46044.
