Vitalstatistix is presenting a cute variation on traditional theatre that comments on an important theme in modern life. The audience is collected from the balcony of the Electric Light Hotel by a bear-suit clad Master of Ceremonies and led single file into a hotel bedroom sized open room. We are in a tropical paradise and it's speed dating night. Three female actors give successive six to ten minute performances as highly strung and lonely people, one male and two female roles. They fall over themselves and gasp for approval, trying to impress and interact with the audience of twenty, lined up on benches around the walls. But what may have been a night of nervous audience titters turns interesting when the MC moves us to a second room.

We are now in a winter ski wonderland and the set of roles is repeated with actors changing parts and the performances becoming successively more revealing, more disturbing; the quick-fix attitude to loneliness is less laughable now as the characters reveal more of what hides within. When audience moves to the third and final room, the moonlit night, the picture becomes yet more grim. With each successive turn the script drives its stiletto deeper to the heart of human insecurity, to the final scene and the ultimate act of human desperation.

The lighting is subtle and snappy, the ironic music is effective and the script has got the pacing just right. Unfortunately the card accompanying this performance doesn't name the writer(s?) but one suspects an ensemble effort. The actors earned the sympathy of the audience with the performances of the first set, then exploited it beautifully throughout the remainder. They should all be commended. Every audience member left amused but ultimately affected by this performance.

Electric Light Hotel (Upstairs), until 14 March