As we are reminded by our ‘serious’ opening, Kafka’s stories are almost all about unhappy men, often with health problems. Not exactly fertile ground for a round of smart, knockabout child-friendly comedy, you might suppose. You’d be wrong. Things take a meta-Kafka turn early on with the – as it turns out – recurring intervention of officialdom. The show is co-opted by two rather more obviously child-friendly performers, who undertake to do a series of Kafka shorts, building up to the grand finale of ‘Metamorphosis’. Or will they? Gags, props and references scattergun across the age range in the room – mostly landing somewhere or other. The closing number rhymes “mess” with “Kafka-esque” and, frankly, if that’s not got you on board, I can’t help you.

Underbelly Cowgate, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Bruce Blacklaw]