Great idea, shame about the play

I sat on a balcony last night and looked through the evening gloom of Hammersmith into the windows of people's lives. Not my regular saturday night pastime nor one I would repeat for this occured at the Lyric Theatre during a performance of 'Contains Violence', a play that promised much but delivered not a great deal.

Armed with binoculars and headphones we sat outside and watched and listened to the actors performing in the building opposite. It was a good begining, all very intriguing. But it quickly became apparent that the story was so garbled and fragmented that it verged dangerously close to artistic indulgence and misadventure. The cause was not helped by the weather - it was a freezing night, and by the end of the show the audience were wishing it to end.

Not a wasted night because if nothing else it was something different but just a shame that such an innovative peice of theatre was let down by an impenetrable script.