The Psychic Detective (and Those Disappeared)

'To be continued' is the message that ends the latest production from Edinburgh-based company benchtours. One hopes that it is also to be developed - as it is, this noir-style mystery makes for a frustrating hour of theatre.

Benchtours have brought their own venue to the Fringe - a Theatre Truck that's parked in George Square. The intimate space seats an audience of 20, who watch The Psychic Detective through a window-like space - or rather, through the slats of the Venetian blind covering it.

When the blind is twisted closed, sets are flown in and out of the performance space with impressive speed. The technique is striking the first few times it is used - as the setting leaps from office to jungle to docks to nightclub - but it quickly becomes irritating. The experience is a bit like watching a film in which every location change is punctuated by several seconds of blackout, and the undisguised hiss of a heavily-used smoke machine only adds to the thumb-twiddling.

If detective Patrick Bett is psychic, he doesn't seem to know it. Visual and textual clues imply he's from a different era to that which the initial setting suggests, and while the glamorous Vivian Fortune has an explanation of sorts for why he appears to be going round in circles, she appears to have mysterious motives of her own.

Peter Clerke, Catherine Gillard and David Walshe give stylised performances in keeping with their surroundings, although it's not always clear at which points Irish and Australian are supposed to be detectable through the generic American accents.

The Psychic Detective certainly makes creative, evocative use of a small space, and its repeated scenes linger in the mind like a dream. But like a dream, there doesn't seem much point in trying to figure out what, if anything, it might mean.