Life's a beach

We've all been on the sort of holiday depicted in The Beach. Freed from routine and confronted with days on end of nothing in particular to do, the mind is left to wander and its first curiosity stop is inevitably other holidaymakers. What, we ask ourselves, is the reality behind these existences formerly unknown to us?

It should be no surprise that, over the course of 80 minutes' drama encompassing four years of vacations, Benedikte and Verner, and Sanne and Jan get rather obsessed with each other. These two disintegrating couples are, after all, the only clients who frequent this remote coastal hotel. For despite annual laments about poor service and escalating prices, they find themselves magnetically drawn back.

The covert romantic liaisons are one of the less interesting features of this slightly derivative piece from Peter Asmussen, the Danish scriptwriter of Lars von Trier's film Breaking the Waves. What is more gripping, in David Duchin's confident translation, is the accretion of details delineating the mental instability that plagues new age-y Benedikte and nervy Jan.

Both men are fascinated by photography - there's a neat motif of pictures being hoarded as evidence of happy times that never were - and thus Asmussen concentrates the action into short, snapshot scenes, which are occasionally rushed in Elly Green's production. Nonetheless, the popping flashbulb that signals changes of location is a clever device.

The parallel, identical bedrooms created by designer Jennie Rawlings smack unnecessarily of student bedsit land. The two rooms share a single door and the hard-working cast spend much time, farce-style, dashing in and out. Mercifully, there are no wardrobes for anyone to hide in.

All four actors look a little young for their roles but, they are impressive. Piers Harrisson's Verner is on constant alert for Beth Aynsley's otherworldly Benedikte and, in the standout performance, Kate Donmall shows that Sanne is only too aware her marriage is a sham. Not the holiday of a lifetime, then, but one on which you can look back with some fond memories.

Until 21 August. Information: 020 7978 7040.

The Beach