Theatre Reviews: Card Boys

Card Boys

The Bush, London W12 (0181-743 3388)

The saving grace of Mike Packer's uneven play about people who put up cards advertising sex is Willie Ross's wonderfully rich performance as a filthy, foul-mouthed old git living on fags and Special Brew. His odd-couple friendship with poseur and pimp Plato (Albie Woodlington) is engaging and often very funny, but it's surrounded by thin characterisation and unconvincing plotting that lurches between comedy and short-winded pathos before settling on sentimentality.