Subway

Matthew Lenton's new production comes frustratingly close to being the hands-down must-see of the Fringe. Certainly, the main ingredients of fantastic theatre all appear to be present and correct.

The premise is instantly engaging - think 1984 as told by Irvine Welsh, but with intoxicating live music from a Kosovan band instead of pills and needles. The script is beautifully constructed (no surprise given that the dramaturg is the fantastic Nicola McCartney), and there are two tremendous central performances from Rosalind Sydney and this year's CATS Best Actor, Sandy Grierson.

The setting is Leith, 2023 (Tramway would surely have been a more appropriate title). Patrick Dugan - Scruggs to his friends - hasn't been home to Scotland in years, but his time south of the border hasn't softened his accent or impaired his ability to intimidate the locals with a measured swagger. This being an epic dystopian tale, we are allowed only limited access to the heart and mind of the tortured protagonist, but Grierson's performance is never short of captivating.

Sydney plays almost every other character in the story, whether male or female, young or old, impassioned or defeated. Almost, because in a few daring moments the seven other performers on the stage cross a boundary to join the story to which they have been providing a thrilling soundtrack.

There are a handful of superb comic moments that provoke outbursts of dismayed laughter as a sense of menace builds. Perhaps most memorable is our hungover hero's unsuccessful quest for Irn-Bru.

The nightmarish vision of the future established is worthy of Orwell, Huxley or Philip K Dick. Intriguing references are carefully rationed - one decidedly sinister reference suggests a setting much further in the future - until the nature of the mysterious 'resistance' is revealed.

Here's where the crushing disappointment comes in. In the final scene, evocatively staged though it may be, the curtain is pulled back to reveal a paranoid wizard pre-occupied with a singular, subjective notion of individual freedom that is entirely out of keeping with the nobly anarchic spirit of the piece. With this deception it feels as though Lenton has constructed an elaborate house of cards only to kick it over before placing the final ace on top.