Blair farce lacks bite

The final part of Justin Butcher's Dubya trilogy is, sadly, as patchy as what has gone before. The premise is good: Tony and Cherry Blear take up the offer of another freebie holiday, this time courtesy of Dubya and Laura.

Their destination is Guantanamo Bay - complete with caged prisoners behind the sunloungers - as part of an attempt to 'send out a new message about the place'.

Then idea overkill sets in. While Tony and chimp-like Dubya attend a press conference, Laura gets wasted on mezcal and dreams she has been transformed into Alice, from Wonderland TV.

A sadistic gay US soldier terrorises a group of Muslim prisoners who, when alone, reveal themselves to be a Welshman, a Liverpudlian and a Bertie Wooster-type Brit. Yasmina The Cleaner turns out to be an Al Qaeda operative ready to blow the place up.

Then, to demonstrate the new 'friendlier' regime, Rumsfeld insists the prisoners perform a stage show for the visiting dignitaries - which turns out to be a mix of cabaret, Shakespeare and deeply misjudged recreations of those Abu Ghraib photos.

With the play toppling under the weight of its 'zany' plot twists and a lack of really biting humour, it all becomes rather ramshackle.

There are good performances here, though, especially from Alasdair Craig as a demoniceyed Blair/Blear and Rupert Mason as a snake-like Rumsfeld.

Butcher has created a scattering of funny lines and some incisive comment and the songs can be inspired but this is not laugh-a-minute theatre and some of it is in pretty bad taste.

Until Nov 20, The Arches, Villiers Street WC2, Tue, Wed and Fri 7.30pm, Thu and Sat

9.30pm, £18, £10 concs. Tel: 0870 033 2626. Tube: Embankment