Natural Selection

Published Monday 12 May 2008 at 10:50 by Natasha Tripney

Paul Rigel Jenkins’ satirical comedy is set in a near future Britain where Wales has been renamed West Anglia and archaeologists have just unearthed the remains of a hominid named Gary.

It’s an ambitious work, the narrative encompassing genetics, evolution and terrorism. It’s also very funny, with a number of laugh out loud lines and one real knockout put-down. Welsh brothers Joseph and Vlad are building a pipe bomb in their kitchen, while their sister, Mash, lures older men back to their flat in order to lift their wallets. The siblings then become involved with an organisation that offers genetic screening and surrogacy services to the infertile.

But, while the inventiveness of the writing can’t be denied, Jenkins struggles to pull all the disparate threads into something coherent and, in its second half, the plays rather crumbles under the weight of its own ideas. Some plot strands peter out and some of the characters are underdeveloped. It remains very watchable though, rarely flagging despite its length, and director Tim Roseman draws strong performances from all the cast, especially from Alan Cox as the anxious Mr Brain and Lisa Diveney as the predatory Mash.

It’s an enjoyable production, but it fails to build on its considerable potential as much as it could.