Fringe / SNAG

The title means "Sensitive New Age Guy", and that is the real snag to this one-man show about Lloyd, a hardbitten advertising executive who joins a "men's liberation group" after finding his wife in bed with his twin sister. Remember men's liberation? We were all meant to sit around with Laurence Olivier's son, Richard, eating berries and howling. It was part of the caring-sharing Nineties that never were. In 1996, it's hard not to feel that it's a paper tiger. Not that Tobsha Learner's script doesn't have large doses of charm, especially as performed by New Zealander Mark Hadlow. Hadlow illuminates Lloyd's unsteady progress to sensitivity with flashes of sadness among the laughs, and he's so confident of his material (having performed SNAG over 200 times Down Under) that he breaks off to banter with the audience without ever losing the thrust of the narrative. The effect is warm and winsome. Just don't expect to have your consciousness raised.

n Traverse. To 31 Aug