FRANKENSTEIN

Bristol Old Vic

In his time as artistic director of Bristol Old Vic, one of Andy Hay's missions was to establish close links with independent companies in the region. It is therefore appropriate that his directorial swansong is a collaboration with Forkbeard Fantasy, the eccentric mixed-media performance art troupe based in the West.

This is a typical Forkbeard production, with ample use of their trademark interaction between film and live performance and weird Heath Robinson props coupled with a script which would give Dali nightmares. It wanders around in the hazy territory between Frankenstein and 'Frankenstein', featuring appearances by both Mary Shelley and the Creature. Whilst the first half leans towards the didactic, with a snapshot discourse on the history of 'Frankenstein' and its many spin-offs, the second half seeks to enact the follow-up to the original: Frankenstein II - The Monster Lives. Forkbeard's unique style would be perfectly suited to a piece which walks the tightrope between offbeat comedy and dark Gothic nightmare, the fog of surrealism hauntingly pierced through by lightning flashes of imagery. Instead, this production stomps resolutely down the path of silliness.

No-one can doubt Forkbeard Fantasy's immense imagination and ambition: what is missing is some way of channelling that into a pleasurable theatrical experience. Apart from the fact that the action is staged at least 15 foot away from the front of the stage - a dreadfully alienating staging which is rapidly becoming an Andy Hay trademark - there is little sign of Hay's presence at the controls. As the outsider in this production, he is the person who should have prevented Forkbeard's comedy from slithering over the edge into self-indulgence. Yet he has failed to cull the various elements which drag or don't work when presented to an audience. Not all ideas are good ideas, and whilst there is ample evidence of fertile creative brains humming in overdrive, there is no sense of any filter having been applied to their output.

As a result, the audience sit perched on the edge of their seats, desperately seeking anything to laugh at. The laughter is all too sporadic, despite the fact that anything remotely comic elicits a desolate titter in an ersatz echo of the bellylaughs for which this audience so desperately long. Overall, the piece is a parade of Pythonesque Frankenstein-related sketches - many of them overlong - stitched together as messily as Frankenstein's creation, with an air of "this was really funny in rehearsal" that one usually encounters in celebrity telethons. If they were raising money for Monsters In Need it might be understandable: as a commercial production in the Old Vic's main house it is a disappointment which verges on being an insult to the audience. The play is subtitled 'A Truly Monstrous Experiment' - truly monstrous it may be, but is it really fair to use paying punters as lab rats?

Toby O'Connor Morse

Until 27 October (box office: 0117 987 7877), then at Lyric Theatre Hammersmith from 7 to 24 November