Pride and prejudice

There is a disquieting similarity, in theme and emotional tone, between this fraught, amusing, gay drama by Patrick Wilde and Mart Crowley's famous play, Boys in the Band. In the 1960s, Crowley wittily told the world how hard and harrowing it was to be homosexual.

That is precisely Wilde's point too: You Couldn't Make it Up, which appropriates the pet phrase of homophobic columnist Richard Littlejohn and gives it a gay slant, dubiously claims that attitudes to homosexuality have scarcely changed since Crowley's day.

Three of Wilde's four interconnected characters suffer gay-related dejection or disappointment. Adam Redmayne, impressive as morose Philip, suffers gay writer's block and dotes hopelessly on his lodger, Kevin, who offers him sexfree adoration, while insisting upon his heterosexuality, despite being a rent-boy.

Robert Sutton's insensitive John has a girlfriend as an alibi, though after joining Jailbait - a preening boy band - it is not long before the revelation of his gayness damages him - a real, dated device. Andy Killick's fat, balding Max, who hankers for Philip and lets fly a volley of witty quips and put downs, sounds as if he walked straight out of Boys in the Band. Yet these old-fashioned characters still command sympathetic attention.

The actors powerfully bring the quartet, with their romantic hankerings and hopes, to tense, pained life, while camp repartee and Emma Linley as a significant girl humorously lighten the load. David Paul West's remarkable, strong performance as Kevin, whose sadness, confusion and social unease remains mysterious until a farcical school reunion, gives the play its emotional dynamism.

These scenes are, however, framed within a larger plot - a furious polemic about gay rights, school boys sexually abusing each other and the bigotry of exploitative pop music and TV executives. This engrossing play, therefore, suffers from thematic overload and from Wilde's own production, which grossly caricatures its hate figures.

Until 21 June. Box office: 020 7794 0022.

You Couldn't Make It Up