Funny

Truth and fiction are equally strange in this curious sketch of a drama, which was inspired by a classified document playwright Tim Nunn claims to have seen while he was working as a human rights campaigner.

The idea of comedy as an interrogation technique is an intriguing one, but Nunn has built a pretty limp drama around it. The obvious approach would be to centre the drama on a professional comedian sent to entertain the troops who finds himself drawn into secret operations. After all, the average Joe telling a few jokes is unlikely to get results where more brutal methods have failed.

However, what we're offered here is a soldier attempting to learn the comedy craft from a local stand-up, then implausibly whisking his mentor overseas to provide on-the-job tips. The situation is so hopelessly contrived and the characters so unbelievable that by the time a gun is whipped out the audience has little reason to care who lives and who dies.

Tommy Mullins throws himself into the central role of Paul, who tries his hand at stand-up, clowning and even a spot of magic in preparation for an unseen encounter with a meditating terrorist, while Keith MacPherson struggles to make sense of comedy coach Jack, who confusingly seems less concerned about getting embroiled in the mission after he's been threatened by Paul's colleague Steven (Donald Pirie, in an underwritten “bad cop” role).

With the help of set designer Kirsty Mackay, director Katherine Morley has managed to create a visually interesting and at times very stylish production, but there is no avoiding the weakness of the script, which hints at jaw-dropping twists but delivers none.

Reviewed at the part of the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe.