Eye/Balls

Third up in National Youth Theatre's Soho summer season is a double bill from writer/actress Sarah Solemani. 'Eye' centres on Diana, a would-be art student who manages to get a place on a prestigious art course in spite of her dodgy past and newborn baby. But when she finds she cannot afford the fees does she take out a student loan? Does she heck. In the first of a series of illogical narrative developments, Diana moves in with one of the course tutors - a beard-stroking proto-feminist who just so happens to be a pimp. It all rather confusing and silly, and barely held together by director Gbolahan Obisesan.

Thankfully, 'Balls' is a much more entertaining offering, featuring a group of stags and a suspicious bride who collide with Diana, now working as a stripper. Pitted with pithy one-liners ('Marriage isn't about trust,' deadpans the excellent Lauren O'Rourke as neurotic bridezilla-to-be Tess. 'It's about supervision'). Solemani's strengths clearly lie in comedy. Some of the plays' more serious issues such as sexual abuse and workplace bullying are clumsily handled, but a fine cast and slick direction from Obisesan keeps the laughter rolling longer than the logic.