'Shaft Gas' at the BT
by Dylan Lowthian

Snipes (Ed Meeham) and Acky (James Harris) are friends who enjoy nothing more than card games and smoking competitions. But this carefree existence is threatened by a terrible epidemic sweeping across the country - 'Shaft Gas' - a mysterious disease whose symptoms include 'pigeon chest, bad breath, builder's bum and low self-esteem.'
As the strange malady generates a climate of growing suspicion and fear, South (Nathan Lyons), an aquaintance and self-proclaimed 'freedom-fighter,' confesses to the two friends that he is responsible for the outbreak - he deliberately released 'Shaft Gas' in a terrorist attack on the London Underground.
The loose plot is fragmented into a series of self-contained sketches, ranging from pastiche (highlights include parodies of 'The Vagina Monologues' and 'A Clockwork Orange'), to song-and-dance routines to scenes of Pythonesque absurdity. This separation into apparently disparate elements is ambitious, and at times confusing. Fortunately, the script delivers a hefty dose of deft verbal humour, and in the absence of narrative coherence there is plenty of quickfire wordplay to keep everything moving forward.
It's not all laughs though. Humour aside, the whole thing is infused with an unsettling sense of menace as the 'Shaft Gas' affliction spreads. '- The future's drab - The colour of mushrooms' conclude Acky and Snipes. The topsy-turvy world of 'Shaft Gas' forces us to share their anxiety. The effect is cumulative, creeping up on the audience by stealth. Lulled into the illusion of an evening of light review, you become aware of feeling uneasy, aware of the presence of something altogether more sinister - this is the 'Shaft Gas' at work.
So what can it be? Wisely, the show doesn't force answers upon us - though various suggestions are hinted at throughout. On the contrary, by keeping the 'Shaft Gas' disease wholly ridiculous, symbolism in check, moments of real power can be achieved. When Acky announces to Snipes that, as part of the measures to control the disease, smoking has been banned, their disappointment is all the more moving.