This was a third Life Of Brian, a third Rocky Horror Show and a third sixth-form review.

Six actors dressed in black stood in a row on stage, their lines and lyrics on stands before them. The story they vocally acted out was the Old Testament's tragic parable of Job.

Simon Clayton, who devised the show, played the narrator and strummed a guitar all the way through. He and his five colleagues interchanged characters, singing and speaking over the top, like a play for radio but minus the wireless.

Although the "musical" was conceived as a million-pound Broadway extravaganza, Clayton admitted he had no money to realise this grand concept.

Therefore, he told us, we were only limited by our imaginations, for which he apologised on our behalves.

But he need not have because, despite the bucketloads of bathos and revelling in the amateurish, they pulled off an entertaining review/musical/concept.

I can imagine it working as a "real" radio play or half-hour TV sketch.

The quasi-Richard O'Brien songs were funny and tight.

The character interchanges were slick, despite the wobbling halos (made out of, what else, but coat hangers and tinsel). And the characters, such as the crashingly-boorish God and the three wideboy mockney wise men (not those Wise Men) were a laugh.

The Book Of Job worked precisely because it harnessed the tried-and-tested power of storytelling. And you can't get much more tried and tested than the Old Testament.