Comedians

Life is tragic, human beings are balls of bitterness, complacency and rage - why then do we laugh? Trevor Griffiths's powerful 1975 play sets up the question like an old-fashioned joke: two Irishmen, a Jew, a couple of fools and a nutter walk into a classroom. They're learning to be comedians, with Eddie (Matthew Kelly), an ex-comic who 'could have been great', as mentor. Later, they perform for Bert (Keith Allen), another former name who believes in comedy as escapist entertainment in the single-minded way that Eddie believes in it as force for change. Which of them will Gethin (David Dawson) and his cohorts try to please? And who, when they troop back to the classroom after the show, will have the last laugh?

'Comedians' is much more than a highbrow 'Britain's Got Talent' 30 years before its time, although the desperation for fame rings cracked bells. Griffiths understands that racism and sexism are the default setting of the frightened - which is all of us. The only easy laughs here stem from the janitor's disgust at the whole reprehensible group; elsewhere, the need to fit in - not to step out of line - gets progressively less funny, until we reach the Jews standing in line for the gas chambers even when they knew where they were headed.

Director Sean Holmes sensibly lets his starry cast do the talking; Kelly and Dawson are particularly eye-catching. It's a shame there's no acknowledgement of a more sophisticated humour - one that doesn't conform to tired prejudice - but while this play only infrequently makes 'em laugh it certainly makes 'em think - not least about the profound question of whose line it is, anyway.