Dreams of Love

Studio Theatre at Smock Alley

Dreams of Love,presented by Side-Show Productions, is like an improvisational exercise from acting class. The theme: the representation of love in popular culture. The style: pantomime. The stock-types are drawn from familiar sources – Romeo and Juliet, Mills and Boon, fairy-tales, contemporary soap-opera – and the performers, Zita Monahan, Martin Sharry and Richard Walsh, attempt to deconstruct these degraded images of romance through stage action that undermines dialogue, and through a lot of repetition. There is no director credited and this is a pity, because a director may have been able to help the group negotiate the limits of the audience's patience.

There are essentially three slight sketches in this hour-long presentation, but they are stretched to the point of deadly tedium. (The traditional love-ditty You Are My Sunshineis sung 10 times). Combined with a deliberately vacant style of acting, the effect of Dreams of Lovebecomes less illuminating than intolerable.

Ends Saturday