Raw truth in the township

The action - in English and Xhosa by a large ensemble cast - centres around an incompetent police force tracking down a serial rapist who is terrorising a township. Interwoven are stories of arguing lovers, shebeens, prostitutes and dysfunctional families that appear to be unrelated, but which come together in the end.

There is much humour, mostly from the soundtrack (by artists including Paul Simon, Tracy Chapman and Norah Jones), which provides ironic counterpoint to the frantic action. When a woman is being beaten by her partner we hear a love song, and during a bloody street robbery, Louis Armstrong is singing Mac the Knife.

As each foul deed is committed, a memento - a murder victim's shoe, a rape victim's underwear - is pegged to a washing line strung across the stage; it's as if the recently independent South Africa is already mature enough to show its dirty linen in public. This is a disturbing and at times difficult play to watch, but I urge you to see it.

The Unsinkable Clerk
Pleasance
****

The Unsinkable Clerk is a two-hander fantasy play devised by Network of Stuff and directed by Chris George, featuring terrific performances by Felix Hayes and Andrew Paton.

Mr Plumley, a middle-class, middle-aged Middle Englander whose life goes along like clockwork, is one day washed out to sea. He suffers many vicissitudes and meets Poseidon and Jonah, and mistakenly joins a ghost ship along the way in a play chock full of biblical and classical allusions. When Mr Plumley has to choose between paradise and a return to his old life, it is a deeply affecting moment.

Township Stories until 2 Sep, then touring. Info: 0131 228 1404; www.traverse.co.uk.

The Unsinkable Clerk to 28 Aug 28, 0131 556 6550; www.pleasance.co.uk

Township Stories
Traverse, Edinburgh