Seduction

Using the same source material as David Hare's The Blue Room, in which Nicole Kidman famously removed her clothes at the Donmar Warehouse, Heifner examines the lives of a motley crue of gay men. It comes as no surprise to discover that they remove their clothes.

What is surprising is how superfluous the story is to all the stripping. The plot pairs groups of two scenes together featuring the same character with two different accomplices, so we see the two sides of each character in back-to-back scenes. It's as well there aren't three scenes back-to-back - these characters really are only two-sided, and three dimensions would be too much for them.

Examine what we're given. A businessman is played to stereotype, with suit and half-moon glasses. A producer has to have an American accent. A renter has to be blond and provincial. So far, no surprises - and as each character has just two scenes to make an impression, there can be no denouement, and therefore we have no interest in following what they do.

Most of the cast double up on characters too and, with no interval, the effect is pacy. But it's often hilariously pacy. A handyman and a sailor use Barons Court Theatre's vaults for a quick encounter - so quick that four thrusts later and they're back to project about it.

Project. All actors should do it, you'd think. Yet this theatre is one of London's most intimate, and with an audience in the round of less than 50 people, projecting in this production just makes the actors sound like they're always shouting. Not only is this patently ridiculous, but the cast's skills as actors become blurred by the overwhelming volume. Worse, the accents are dodgy - the writer's uptown theatricality and the producer's American both slip with every other word.

One aspect that works very well is James Galloway's design. In the confined space, white boxes are used in a variety of configurations to create furniture. The boxes really are boxes too - props and costumes are stored in them. Some inspired lighting adds a touch of art to proceedings, while the soundtrack plays like a Who's Who of gay music, from a Pet Shop Boys cover to Puccini's O mio babbino caro, sung by the inimitable Kiri Te Kanawa. The latter was used to rather better effect in Merchant/Ivory's A Room With A View.

But then there's the script. It tries so hard to be "real" and "modern", but almost every character sounds the same - as though they're speaking lines written as text rather than the lines their characters in "real life" might say.

All in, Seduction is a show that's rough around the edges. But its target market will love it, if only for the chance to oggle at the offerings on show.

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