Catriona knox: player

pleasance courtyard (venue 33)

P layER’s appeal chiefly resides in Catriona Knox’s performance. A game, exuberant comic actress, she fully inhabits her creations, throwing herself into them while remaining capable of acute physical subtlety.

Her dim-witted, sloaney career woman is little more than an archetype, seemingly giving her PA a dressing-down for her own imbecility. But this peppy showcase of character comedy gets properly under way with a salt-of-the-earth pub landlord, addressing the audience as regulars, her Cockney cheer dissolving as she tries to unmask the betrayer who’s ratted about her lax hygiene.

A sharp improviser, Knox has an attuned interaction radar that proves invaluable. slapping on a bonnet, she becomes a sexually candid Jane Austen heroine, a one-note gag of mixed speech registers, amusingly delivered nonetheless.

similar is a language teacher, agitatedly coaxing a pupil through an oral examination under ofsted’s scrutiny, her impeccable French interspersed with seething englishisms about michael Gove, nicely presented but rather too long. she overstretches a breastfeeding skit too, but an ageing sex doll’s lamentations are punchier. ultimately, the crowd-pleasing

Strictly Come Dancing finale encapsulates Knox’s hour – a so-so premise, competently written, elevated by the execution.

jay riChardson

Until 26 August. Today, 3:15pm