Original Review:

Show Rating:

Navelgazing's latest offering is the sort of brilliantly-realised comedy that's easy to admire on all manner of technical levels - yet leaves you acutely aware that you're not laughing as much as you think you .

The hugely talented team have created a diverse menagerie of weird and warped characters to populate the depressing Cheddwang Park, a failing tourist attraction in the shadow of Alton Towers.

It's a great setting for a comedy, a miserable place which makes sad inadequates ponder the fruitlessness of their underachieving lives.

So we have the enthusiastic manager, keen to make his mark but inevitably destined to fail, an emotionally fragile ex-alcoholic falconer and limb-deficient Morris dancers.

The visitors are even more disturbing - from the badge-collecting paedophile to the lonely divorcee desperate to cling to his son's affections.

These are all beautifully-imagined creations, fully fleshed out with enough personality defects to keep Kilroy going for a year. And they remain in the memory long after the show over, testament to what fine characters they are.

They are performed with verve and skill, and are placed in great situations up by some strong, confident writing. But somehow there are many more smiles than chuckles in this comedy of awkward embarrassment.

It does have its laugh-out-loud moments, usually emerging from such inspired physical humour as the mimed animatronic figures, and there is plenty to enjoy throughout.

But somehow it needs to find that extra yard that makes the difference between a good comedy and a great one.