David Mamet’s three-character drama is about Hollywood, in the sense that Macbeth is about life in a Scottish castle. Tinseltown mores are the take-off point for a dissection of the cupidity and betrayal that Mamet believes are fundamental to all relationships.

The lights come up on an office as empty as the soul of its occupant.

Bobby Gould (Robert Cohen) is a studio executive sitting at the top of the heap. He has the power to green-light any project that costs less than ten million dollars. Anything over that needs the approval of his boss.

A junior producer, Charlie Fox (Steven O’Shea) barges into Gould’s day and tosses just such a movie into his lap. Fox tells Gould that Doug Brown, a big star, is enthusiastic about an action movie Fox has optioned – so much so that the actor is willing to desert his home studio to get it made.

The two men can almost smell the money. Their vainglorious scheming is interrupted by the temporary secretary Karen (Marie Ellis), who the men view as yet another trophy to be bargained over.

Mamet’s razor-sharp writing never wastes a word. By the time Karen has declared herself “naïve” three times in as many minutes, we know that it’s not just her figure-hugging outfit that flatters to deceive.

Steven O’Shea is a terrific comedic actor and this is his show. He stalks the stage like a marionette mainlining caffeine, milking laughs from the audience.

But it’s laughter in the dark. It is not just the movie business that is a “sink hole of slime and degradation”, in Mamet’s view – it’s the fundamental nature of the human psyche.

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