Satanic rituals

Catherine Johnson's mildly amusing, superbly acted comedy of adolescent manners, in which three Bristolian teenagers mess around with Satanic rites, could have been designed as a youth TV soap opera. And perhaps it was.

For Ms Johnson, once a noted Bush playwright, who found fame and money by writing the book of the musical Mamma Mia! has written scripts for TV series. And Little Baby Nothing is overloaded with undeveloped plot lines just like a soap.

It sounds a theatrical health warning about the supposed dangers facing teenagers who play around with black magic. And Johnson's teenagers certainly talk the closed language of youth with conviction.

Fourteen-yearold El and her friend Erin (Jenny Platt) are caught in a sub-sexual triangle with Tom Daplyn's Joby, who is supposed to be their age, but looks over 20. They are about to experiment with a Ouija board when El's emotionally retarded mother, Anna, appears. She shows them how to play and receives a message from the dead that turns her daughter hysterical.

This misfortune ridiculously precipitates mystery, mayhem and teenage attempts at Satanic rites, complete with chalk pentagrams, a little Ecstasy and rather more agony, caused by a bit of stabbing. The silliness of this scene is occasionally redeemed by its comic cuts: "Looks more like a picnic than devil worship." But lowrent comedy overrides the play's concern with truth evasion and motherdaughter relations. Suzan Sylvester's man-seeking, egotistical Anna is a truth concealer whose dishonesty has damaged El.

Alice O'Connell, making a terrific professional theatre debut, deftly conveys the daughter's introversion, unhappiness and resentment. But the finesse and buoyancy of Mike Bradwell's elegant production, played on Jonathan Fensom's authentic roof-top patio, cannot disguise its gaping flaws.

Until 21 June. Box office: 020 7610 4224.

Little Baby Nothing