The Piano Thief, Receivers

This double-billed performance is an endurance test. Receivers (second in the programme order) seemed to stretch on and on into the night, the minutes ticking by as yet another unmotivated, bizarre plot twist took place. Described as an "absurdist black comedy", it enters the genre of the absurd like an uninitiated young boy to his favourite club: "Hey guys, can I play?" "No, you can't," is the reply. Too full of the rapid-fire associations of a sincerely fragmented mind, it's absurd to the extent that it makes little sense and pushes the audience to dig for something more. Whether it was the staging, directorial choices or just the script itself (most probable), the only tangible finding was that the play had more minutes to wade through.

On the other hand, The Piano Thief was snappy and rare. Two everyday blokes are smacked out of their routine by an epiphany and change the scene of their local pub. It's about 30 minutes long and packed full of jazzy one-liners and coy interplay between the three actors.

Consistent across both plays was a distracting projected background. From space to a park to wheatfields, it assumed the role of specifying the stage's action but served only to distract. An inconsistent soundscape and lagging manual spotlights also distracted.

For 30 minutes quaint and for an hour-and-a-half confusing and theatrically addled, The Piano Thief is a minor delight and Receivers an uphill stretch that you'd rather avoid.