Speed-the-Plow, The Crypt

SPEED-THE-PLOW is typical David Mamet fodder. Bobby Gould (Paul Meade) is a recently promoted movie producer. Charlie Fox (Gary Cooke), his friend and junior, brings him a surefire script and star. All is well until Gould, in an attempt to bed the temporary secretary, Karen (Alice Barry), and so win a bet, allows her to read a script.

This is where the thorny issues of industry over art are raised as Karen falls for the script, a vague and spiritual vision, and Bobby falls for Karen and an idea of himself as a good man" if he goes ahead with the project. But Mamet does not work with black and white and we are left wondering about everyone's motivation - except perhaps Fox, who has almost visible dollar signs in his eyes.

This Brasstacks production uses the Crypt's space well, with Olivia Reed's set dividing Gould's life between his squishy-sofa home life, where he is susceptible to Karen's charms and his own insecurities, and his office life, where he has a blocky desk between himself and everyone else.

A constant presence on stage, Paul Meade excellently portrays Gould's faltering disintegration from bluff self-assurance through willing self- delusion to desperate self-protection. Gary Cooke settles into his role between the first and third act, finishing with a hugely energetic, textured and convincing tirade against the friend who has abandoned both him and commercial good sense.

Anyone who has seen Secrets and Lies will know how great a compliment is intended by a comparison between Alice Barry and Brenda Blethyn, both physically and in their ability to flesh out an otherwise ditzy character. It is also Barry who most nearly conquers Mamet's near impossible timing by realising that it's what is not said - the pauses - which speak the loudest.