A backdrop of Californian sea bristling with shark fins sets the mood for Marlane Gomard Meyer's cautionary tale. One half-expects the theme music from Jaws. Yet the predators here come not from the briney depths but the sleaze industry of Los Angeles.
One of Tinseltown's habitués remarks that dreams are like movies - they stop people from seeing how bad things really are, so when the eponymous Etta arrives in La La Land, naively set on film stardom, she is vulnerable bait.
A minnow waiting to be swallowed up in the murky waters of porn and prostitution, she is sucked down by the likes of exploitative video producer Ben (underwhelmingly played by Glenn Conroy), a puffy slimeball addicted to black clothing and gold jewellery, and himself clinging on to a slippery slope that can end up on the wrong end of a snuff video.
Meyer's "heroine" is no victim, however, and Daniela Nardini traces Etta's move up the sex industry food chain, from street trash to "talent co-ordinator" - though one seemingly with a heart.
The original production with Miranda Richardson at the Royal Court in 1990 didn't convince me that this says anything new, apart from revealing the morally ambiguous journey of a female survivor through a phallocentric jungle.
Even having bought out most of the Ann Summers catalogue, Ché Walker's occasionally stilted and poorly lit production hasn't changed that. Clarke Peters's white-suited player aside, it needs the smack of authenticity and conviction. These sharks lack bite.
Until 26 February. Information: 020 7373 3842.
Etta Jenks
