Vincent and Ginger by Roland Lloyd Parry
Burton Taylor Theatre until Sat 21st Oct

In the wake of Ronnie Kray's death and the British public's continued fascination with gangster movies, Vincent and Ginger has chosen an apposite time to burst into the Burton Taylor. Roland Lloyd Parry's script stylishly dissects our fascination with the criminal underworld, cleverly juxtaposing the fundamentally normal relationship of Vincent and Ginger against the caricatured world of Ronny Lloyd and his porn racket. Increasingly seduced by the violence that Lloyd elicits from his innocent protégé, Vince begins to lose his true identity in the quagmire of gangster clichés.

Matt Board is well-cast as Vince - his natural delivery and nervous demeanour making his desire for his own 'gangster empire' easy to comprehend. Danni Mason gives us a rounded and realistic performance - her sexily comic scepticism, ultimately unable to pierce her boyfriend's new facade, giving way to a moving sense of disbelief and fear at what Vincent has become. The cleverly orchestrated dual-set accentuates the sense of contrast - the lovers' studenty flat merging with the office of 'Mad Ronny' (played with panache by Rich Hough) in a way that shows how easily the gap between normality and criminal power-games can be bridged. Tom Green is excellent as the cockney mobster Billy Braithwaite, and Gwyneth Glyn Evans is superb as his frustrated moll - her beautifully-timed attempted seduction of Vince is one of the show's highlights. Yet it is testament to the skill of Lloyd Parry's writing that the characters themselves recognise the stereotypes they fulfil - in fact, they are forced to cling to them because they now represent the only sense of identity available to them. This gives the piece a level of sophistication that moves it above the majority of the appalling Brit-flicks we see clogging up the cinemas.

Some of the scenes could do with a bit of cutting, and the dreadful fake blood should really be sorted out, but the use of space is effective, and Jim Roebuck's direction pacey and original. All in all, with a pumping and nicely-chosen soundtrack, Vincent and Ginger is well-worth seeing. You f***ing got that?

Rob Crumpton, 17 / 10 / 00