Rich parody of greedy power : ****

Every npw and then a fringe theatre company secures the funding to consolidate its most experimental work. The Courtyard is one such lucky venue, and Admiration the latest company to benefit.

Poor but purposeful, their latest production shows physical performance at its best.

With obvious delight, a cast of seven women conspire to dramatise an array of details from tabletops and dinner parties to war and adultery.

Under Jon Hewitt's inspired direction, the performers transcend the limitations of their sex, age and simple black costumes. The result is a heightened mode of drama that mixes the muscular daring of Berkoff with the linguistic wit of Stoppard.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without Alfred Jarry's mischievous script. This parody of Shakespeare's Macbeth triumphs through the creation of the grotesque Pa Ubu, a foul old man set on conquering Poland by any means necessary. He and his sidekick wife personify all that is base and stupid in mankind, and the play holds the pair up to hilarious ridicule.

Hewitt takes inspiration from the fact that in 1896 Jarry condoned a production of the play using marionettes. Hils stilted blocking and jerky choreography makes a virtue of these cruel characters' very flatness, showing the way in which greed can reduce a person's soul to just two dimensions.

In an age when politics and power parade their increasingly ugly faces across the media, the play turns out to be both timely and timeless. Ths show is a must see for its wonderful humour and awful, uncompromising truth.