Is it comedy or is it art? Kim Noble and Stuart Silver certainly make an exhibition of themselves in this revival of their provocative 2005 show, Part 9. Noble spends the hour on a running machine, drinking lager and smoking, while Silver interacts directly with the audience, telling stories, playing chess and getting one fan to dress as a lion.
The premise is that the duo have split up and are simultaneously performing separate multi-media shows, underlining the classic tension and personality divide in any double act. Noble is surly and sulky, Silver is friendly and fourth-wall-dismantling - literally inviting fans to dinner mid-set.
It is certainly an intriguing idea and intermittently very funny, as the parallel texts intertwine and clash. It is also uncomfortably confrontational, testing tolerance levels with overgrown naughty schoolboy Noble being shockingly, sexually candid (thankfully on video).
The trouble is that this is ultimately more gut-achingly pretentious than side-splittingly witty, intentionally raising as many hackles as laughs. But if your idea of fun is an hour of Brechtian-alienation-meets-Cannon-and-Ball, these art college scamps certainly fit the bill.
4-7 July (0870 429 6883, www.sohotheatre.com)
Noble And Silver
Soho Theatre
Dean Street, W1D 3NE
