Antopolski 2000, Pleasance over the road

Carving and chopping in the kitchen of Henry VIII, Lambert Simnel looks as if the closest he'll come to glory will be to have a cake named after him. But, as we see in the flashbacks throughout Toby Wilsher and Dylan Ritson's play, Lambert has an extraordinary history: As a child, he was trained by conspirators to impersonate the missing heir to Richard III. Their claim ended with Lambert amidst thousands of corpses on a battlefield and Henry's father making the boy his servant.

Wilsher's production for Trestle Theatre is full of gusto without being oppressively hearty. The play itself is rich in fact and imagination, leavened with symbolism and social history. Lambert tells an apprentice that gentlefolk don't want to know what they're eating. "Cut it into pieces so that you can't tell what it is,'' he says, laying the foundations of British cookery for the next 500 years.

For a while, Lambert appears to be a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, but the authors are more generous-spirited and inventive than this. This original play is well-served by a fine cast, especially Paul Amos as the idealistic, valiant Lambert.

Venue 88 (0131-225 5105) to August 26, 19.15 (21.05)