Actor Will Adamsdale gleefully rides roughshod over classifications. 2004's Jackson's Way won a comedy Perrier Award, while his follow-up The Receipt was a more theatrical piece. This latest work, a Chaplinesque Modern Times for the cyberspace era, falls between stools, but who cares when it is so amiable?
Human Computer does what it says on the tin with verve, charm and lots of sweat. Adamsdale, all restless energy and puppyish technophobe, dons a cape-like cardboard screen and distributes D-I-Y icons. Fidgety fans should grab spam-placards to pop up like the real thing.
Except that here it is entertaining, not irritating.
This is very much a gig of two halves, with a supporting cast of PC programmes wittily given personalities in part one. The arrow and the hourglass have some unresolved sexual tension, the firewall is a zealous sergeant major.
In the second section, things climax quickly as Adamsdale battles with a virus. If this occasionally feels like a live shoestring pitch for a Tron-meets-Toy-Story movie that is no bad thing. Hollywood could do much worse - there's nothing cuter than the Human Computer.
Until 24 November. Information: 020 7223 2223.
The Human Computer
Battersea Arts Centre
Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN
