You'd rather forget the dramatis personae of The Playactor at the Old Red Lion.
Chicago playwright David Hauptschein has taken an easy route to absurdism by populating his play mostly with nutters.
Naïve young Portlander Margot turns up in a Philadelphia hovel to be united with internet lover Charlie.
The Charlie she meets seems unsure who he is and his sister and lodger are transparently disturbed.
Margot gets ineffectively flustered as the trio persist in being aggressive or weird or both. Meanwhile, a plot fails to develop.
The rather good cast manage to invest Hauptschein's self-indulgence with some reality, but after an hour, with an hour and a half to go, massive cracks are showing.
I found myself baffled as to why the seemingly sane Margot didn't just go home. I wanted to.
The Playactor: until 3 March (020 7837 7816).
The Playactor
Old Red Lion
St John Street, EC1V 4NJ
