A hellish misfire in Paradise

On paper, Live From Paradise is an intriguing concept. Linking three locations by video streaming to create a simultaneous combined performance, audiences in London, Birmingham and Colchester get three shows for the price of one, with live performers interplaying with their on-screen partners.

It's an idea that opens up a whole range of dramatic possibilities, particularly as the three venues are a disused courtroom, a deserted shop and a fine old church. Given a company with a track record as impressive as Station House Opera's, fireworks surely had to follow. Well, sadly, no.

For Live From Paradise is so seduced by its own technology that such considerations as engaging characters, dramatic momentum and an interesting story have fallen out of the loop. It's one thing to set up a situation but it's what you do with it that counts and Live From Paradise turns its triple centre drama into a turgid bore.

You could ponder the metaphysical implications of characters talking to an empty space as the dialogue fractures between time and place but so tedious are the tiresome vamps and creepy blokes who amble in and out of the action, it scarcely seems worth the effort.

With stilted performances and humour so lame it borders on the embarrassing, Live From Paradise plays more like a bad sci-fi B-movie than a cutting-edge 21st-century experience. Station House Opera artistic director Julian Maynard Smith has built up an impressive catalogue of innovative work. But Live From Paradise is a hellish misfire.

Until Jun 4, The Courtroom, Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street E1, Mon to Sun 7.30pm, £15, £12 concs. Tel: 07952 769633. www.stationhouseopera.com Tube: Liverpool Street