Another instalment in the spate of tales of East-End gangsterland which have appeared like molehills on a golf course over the past few years, Whippersnapper is a chilling one-man show by actor/writer Reuben Purchase.

Set (ostensibly) in a pub - complete with grotesquely enlarged jar of pickled eggs, lit spookily green at tense moments - Whippersnapper is one character's story of a life gone badly astray. "Bam, bam, bam"; beats punctuate a rollercoaster ride through domestic violence, unintended murders and house music, where the steel legs of bar stools double as the bars of a prison cell. This young whippersnapper will not "turn yellow feather" as his forefathers did, but instead serves the sentence he has acquired by living a life of misdemeanours. Whether he committed the crime for which he is finally incarcerated remains unclear... But nobody comes to redeem him; there is no happy ending. The bigger they come, the harder they fall. The audience hardly has time to pity this cheeky cockney chappy as makes his lightning slither of descent into chain-smoking psychopathology.

This is a first for Reuben Purchase, an actor of considerable experience (from the RSC to Xena, Warrior Princess), and he handles the strain of maintaining a high pitch of performance (and coping with his complex, well-written script) with skill. The set is clever, with the stalls consisting of pub furniture (yes, you can take in your drinks) which draws the audience even more intimately into the creepy world of the son of Frank "The Fingers" O'Donnell. The complex lighting is really the second star of the show, however, with hallowe'en green, bullseye-accurate spots and even a spinning disco ball.

If you liked films such as Lock Stock and The Italian Job, but found yourself incredulous when it came to the comic finalés; if you saw Nil by Mouth and fancied a couple more laughs to light the darkness; give Whippersnapper a chance. Mr Purchase does the deceptively baby-faced East End Bad Bwoy very well. These may be the only dark nights upon which you can encounter such a whippersnapper without fearing for your life.

Su Jordan, 24.07.02