Bliss -TNT

French-Canadian playwright Olivier Choinière's one act play (translated by Caryl Churchill and originally entitled "Félicité") is certainly unusual. But the behaviour of the audience was perhaps even more revealing. As weentered the auditorium, everyone was handed a blue Wal-Mart jacket with a smiley yellow face on the back and the instruction that it had to be worn during the performance. Surprisingly, just about everyone complied, no questions asked.
Presumably the idea was to turn us into mirror images of the on-stage characters – four Wal-Mart employees who, on a suitably drab washroom set, speak to us through a frame. Fascinated by tawdry gossip magazines, theyrecount, first, the farewell performance and subsequent pregnancy of Celine (by implication, Celine Dion) then enter more nightmarish territory as they interweave her story with that of Isabelle, an abused, bed-ridden fan. Only later does it become apparent that these are the warped fantasies of Hayley Carmichael's Caro, a strange, solitary girl whom her colleagues dislike and who believes she emanated from the spewed insides of Isabelle. Nasty.
It makes for an uncomfortable if well-acted evening which, though self-consciously clever, still struggles unsuccessfully to engage.
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, SW1. (020-7565 5000). Until April 26. £15 (£10 on Mondays).