Shunt's surreal suspense

Unresolved suspense can hang a show. Amato Saltone never delivers a pay-off, for all the nervous expectation it puts you through.

Nevertheless, it's a unique experience, a tense and surreal journey, hardly less enjoyable for its lack of a destination.

This is Shunt's second "live event" since they stepped in from the anarchic wilds of the Fringe and went semiestablishment, as a kind of guerrilla arm to the National Theatre, working out of the vaults under London Bridge.

It's an atmospheric place. To enter, there's a walk of 100 metres or so through a dark tunnel. Train noise echoes above. I thought I heard a bat.

None of which is nearly as disconcerting as the Swingers' party which starts the show proper. As a singer croons dirty lounge jazz, you are led into a bland, city penthouse where the hired help wear fixed smiles and want to discuss lubricant options. The control word, you are told, is "quail".

But before you get down to it, an act of unspeakable violence is witnessed. The group is separated, and from then on your guess is as good as mine. A cinema, a sailor and two men with pigs' heads feature.

The show was inspired by the work of Cornell Woolrich, the writer of Rear Window, and indeed there's a lot of spying to be done, on murderers, pranksters and fellow audience members as they make their way through the dark.

Perhaps there is some message to this. I suspect, however, that the loudly nervous observers giggling with each new revelation had the right idea. This is a show geared to reaction rather than contemplation.

The event tiptoes from shadowy, surreal set-piece to shadowy, surreal set-piece. The audience, unaided by logic, is kept in edgy need of seeing what happens next.

Sometimes the interaction is uninspired. Occasionally, an idea lingers too long and the desire comes to shout "quail". Never are your alerted senses given the climactic moment they're hoping for. But at least they are alerted. You emerge from the guilty, sordid air of the Vaults unfulfilled, but far from disappointed.

Until Saturday. Information:020 7452 3000.

Amato Saltone