Nation - unedited version

Even the strong visual eye of director and co-designer Melly Still fails to imbue Mark Ravenhill’s adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s novel with real dramatic impetus. Set in a parallel world, this tale of the birth of a united nation and the transition from boy to man offers potentially fruitful scope for misunderstandings between cultures and clashes of belief.

The underwater scenes are beautifully realised and the teenage leads – South Seas chief in the making Mao and scientifically minded Victorian aristocratic Ermintrude, shipwrecked by the tsunami which virtually annihilates his fellow islanders - are likeable if not charismatic. Jason Thorpe’s corseted parrot, prone to tourette’s style outbursts, and a whopping lactating pig hit the mark, but the storytelling is too diffuse to significantly engage either intellect or emotion.