REVIEW - THE STAGE AND TELEVISION TODAY

Rocket Theatre Company began an all-too-brief northern tour with an interesting double bill containing a new work, Arise, by promising playwright Jim Burke, and Jim Cartwright's intriguingly titled I Licked a Slag's Deodorant which were performed at the Didsbury Studio Theatre. This space, as its title implies, is a basic college studio with little in the way of lighting and less in the way of scenery, and it is to the credit of quality performances, as well as director Martin Harris, that the material was so well served.

Arise is a clever and cynically witty comment on the new religions - and particularly cult leaders - with little to say and their blindly faithful followers. Although director Harris provides the voice of the prophet Bellow, this is virtually a one-man show with a first rate performance from Simeon Truby, playing the marathon role of Morty, the follower, whose fanaticism is tried and tested with interesting consequences. There is also an imaginative use of audio-visual material and references to the millennium, which make this work very much of our time.

I Licked a Slag's Deodorant is a powerful piece of uncompromising theatre about the meeting of two lost souls who find a kind of comfort in one another. Anthony Bessick gives an excellent performance as the pathetic loner who has to buy love, while Emma Sheldon is superb as the crack-addicted prostitute. Their battle for survival is harrowing but makes first-rate theatre, as do both these one-act plays.