Rosie Sheikh's Cajun Chicken is a sadly amusing little tale of far-too-innocent Cherie and her student summer job selling ready meals door-to-door.

Told in a Talking Heads, straight at the audience style, it quickly moves from an expose of the exploitation of penniless undergraduates to something much more sinister.

Kathryn Benn, in her first professional role, is very impressive - warm, communicative and confident.

The main bout is ex-Manchester Evening News columnist Jim Burke's Cornered, a fast-moving, fancy-footwork of a script, featuring two cornermen - I always thought they were called seconds - in a seedy boxing gym where they are preparing for the night's big fight. Vinnie (Liam Fox) is the younger ambitious one, Rex (Jamie Greer) the one who thinks he's being passed over.

Lurking somewhere in the background is the sinister Doxy and it seems the up-coming fight featuring the promising Little T will be sabotaged.

The idea of putting the nobodies on the outside of the ropes into the ring of life to slug it out is a good one.

It's tightly written and gripping, with two excellent performances and is very sharply directed by Rocket founder Martin Harris.

As Rex and Vinnie make their preparations for the big fight, we're taken into a murky world where the fight for survival isn't confined to the ring.

Director Martin Harris has created a stylish production which uses a thumping soundtrack to fine effect. He teases out strong performances from the two actors, with Liam Fox really punching his weight as scally Vinnie.

What makes the play such a delight is the dialogue, mixing beautifully-constructed everyman banter with some killer gags.

Accompanying Cornered is Cajun Chicken, a short one-act play by newcomer Rosie Sheikh. This monologue about Cherie, a woman struggling to make something of her life, has a crack at saying something important about domestic violence, petty crime and flavoured poultry.

When you think of boxing, you immediately think of muscled men, sweat and excitement. Cornered, however, does not focus on boxers, and despite being set in a boxing ring not a single punch is thrown. The play concentrates on two cornermen who spend their time hovering on the edges of the ring, never quite part of the blood and glory. Rex, the elder and more experienced of the cornermen, decides to indulge in a little match fixing on behalf of a local gangster only to have his plans ruined by his simple and praise-seeking partner Vinnie.

The play is excellently acted and well sustained and the exchanges between the two cornermen are always amusing. However, the intrigue and twists leaves the audience a little confused towards the end of the play and no one is quite sure who is in the wrong.

Cherie, the heroine of Cajun Chicken, will win the sympathy of any student who was roped into selling encyclopedias over the summer under the illusion that they will win a few thousand, but somehow spent the whole summer working hard and ending up overdrawn. A quietly amusing monologue tells of Cherie's involvement with a door to door Cajun chicken company (no, she didn't think to wonder exactly who sells food door to door). Cherie fails to notice that warning signs that her company is not quite kosher as she is too busy convincing herself that Liam, her boyfriend and boss, "really loves me deep down", despite the fact he is a bit too free and easy with his fists. Naturally, it all ends in disaster, a visit to the hospital and court.

Although a black comedy set in a boxing ring is undoubtedly an unusual choice of setting and subject you definitely do not have to like boxing to enjoy Cornered and the compelling endings of each play.

- Joanna Jayarajan.

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26th - 30th September 2000 - Didsbury Studio Theatre, Manchester. 5th Oct - 7th October 2000 - Bolton Octagon Studio Theatre. Directed by Martin Harris. Cast: Kathryn Benn. Lighting Designer: Iain Dennis. Stage Manager: Torquil Varty.

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© Rocket Theatre 2002