The Receipt

Will Adamsdale was the surprise winner of the Perrier Award in 2004 with Jackson's Way, a one-man show that parodied American lifestyle coaches. It certainly wasn't the most original premise, but Adamsdale's performance made it a hit.

The subject matter of The Receipt is, on the face of it, similarly run-of-the-mill: the intrusion of noise, paper, branding and buzzwords in our lives.

Some time in the future, a pair of researchers and 'archaeologisers' explain the baffling story of a city of the past in which simple words such as 'oyster' and 'orange' took on strange new meanings as the meaning of life itself became increasingly obscured.

Their investigation centres on a man who worked in an office. He was required to check in and out of the building, travel in a lift, greet colleagues with a straight-mouthed smile, answer the phone and track down something called a 'busy board'.

Upon finding a discarded receipt, he set off in search of its owner, jacking in his job and losing his flat in the process.

Adamsdale plays the man in a story narrated, and accompanied on a Moog synthesizer, by Chris Branch. In reality, the relationship between the two performers is a little more complex - this is a clever show by two very talented performers.

However, the fact remains that much of The Receipt's premise lacks freshness. We already knew that ordering coffee is a trial these days, that many people work meaningless jobs and that corporate jargon is cringe-worthy.

The Receipt certainly tells its story in a beautiful way, although whether this achievement is negated by the inclusion of the infernal 'You're Beautiful' by James Blunt is certainly a point to ponder.