Manipulation master class

0 Trevor Lock explores the idea of objective reality on their backs and jumping on each other in a maelstrom of movement. And then, in amongst the hedonism, the two-faced superficiality and the unidentifiably bizarre, comes a scene of true emotional integrity. A couple stands side-by-side, while the party host details all that is wrong with their relationship, highlighting how two people can view the same situation so very differently.

It’s not for everyone, but if you like your dance served with a side order of the theatrically weird and wonderful, Vagnerová has something for you. KELLY APTER doesn’t quite say, “It’s only your own time you’re wasting” but you feel he might at any minute. We are exploring reality and whether there is such a thing as objective reality. It is a social experiment, and it is both fascinating and hilarious. Several people in the audience are given notepad and pen and instructed to write down what is happening as they see it: block capitals, full sentences.

From time to time, Lock checks on their work. This sounds slight, but it creates brilliance. His manipulation of the audience is mesmerising. He has a ferociously fast wit which goes from nought to brilliant comeback in a nano-second.

Anyone who truly enjoys audience participation needs to see this show, which also boasts quite the best bucket speech in history, a brilliant consideration of why weeing where you sit in an audience might actually be the thing to do, a painfully funny roll-call that owes nothing to Rowan Atkinson and everything to Lock – and left me in awe and wondering why Lock is not a household name. KATE COPSTICK resident, charmingly exuberant in the manic phase of her bipolar cycle. But this is not a love story, it’s a story of a friendship which blossoms in difficult circumstances.

This short play written and directed by Evangeline Osbon (who also performs) deals sensitively and imaginatively with the issues around mental health. The cast of five, all students and recent graduates from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA), approach the material with energy, skill and compassion.

In a short space of time, they manage to successfully convey the complexities of a unit like Riverdale, where staff are bound by regulations, procedures and care-plans, but are also capable of humanity and, often, kindness. Day and Race give outstanding performances as Molly and Jay, two ordinary young people who find themselves battling extraordinary illnesses, offering hope while remaining realistic about the likelihood of full recovery. SUSAN MANSFIELD Laughing Horse @ The Counting House (Venue 170) JJJ Inspired by true events, Bone Wars depicts a historic feud between Edward Drinker Cope (Nicholas Cooke) and Othniel Charles Marsh (Kieron Nicholson), two 19th century academics whose passion for palaeontology pits them against each other.

In this portrayal, Cope is the (comparative) innocent, a sweet-natured soul who just wants to unearth fossils and spend time with his beloved family (and, OK, maybe also take advantage of the 1870s’ relaxed attitude to illicit substances). Marsh, on the other hand, comes across as an archetypical egocentric villain: convinced of his own intellectual superiority, he plots to undermine Cope at every opportunity, all the while taking credit for his rival’s discoveries.

The inherently fascinating scenario carries Bone Wars a long way – it woud take a pretty concerted effort to make a show about duelling Victorian dino-diggers boring.

Cooke and Nicholson ( joined onstage by Michelle Wormleighton in a variety of supporting and narrator roles) aren’t the most polish ed performers, but their delivery is, even at its shakier points, still competent, and the jokes land more often than not. Given its lighthearted yet informative tone, it would even pass for a family-friendly afternoon show, were its performers not so fond of dropping the odd F-bomb for comic effect. NIKI BOYLE Sweet Grassmarket (Venue 18) JJ A tawdry, tabloid-style exposé of the sex industry, Glasgow Central is desperate to be the West Coast’s answer to Trainspotting, but falls far short of being the West Coast’s Porno. Disjointed, wonkily produced and home to the finest (and therefore least encouraging) Quentin Tarantino impression this side of the Atlantic, it’s buoyed up by the engaging, based on true life portrayal of drug-addicted escort Jainey, but not enough to make up for its faults. NIKI BOYLE