Although best described as a romp, with all the lack of coherence and discipline that implies, this Janus Theatre Company production has a comic liveliness which sometimes nudges it beyond its pub and locker-room whimsy. Written by Ian Wild (who is also responsible for the music), the play is based on a series of jokes about the possible uses of the bathroom products - back-scrubbers, contraceptives and so on - hawked by Marco Polo as he seeks his fortune in Ireland, the country of enormous bogs.
Feminism, a papal plot and adultery all get an airing in a script which reveals its provenance - the "original concept" coming from Wild himself and the cast - a little too clearly. There are good lines, but these are too often lost in the melee.
The antic, and sometimes frantic, pace allowed by director Belinda Wild exaggerates the script's shortcomings. The playing is full of restless movement and hysterically pitched Magyar-accented voices, a combination which adds up to over-acting on a heroic scale. Good costumes emphasise the lack of any setting except the black and grimy stage.
Plays until September 2nd.