It is never a good sign when, on turning up at a venue you are offered free tickets to the show you are about to review. This is what happened to me this evening as I arrived at the fabulous Pod Deco.

Turning up to a fringe venue, that was once a childhood haunt as the Odeon cinema, is an odd but exciting experience, as was watching a play in a space where once I watched the latest James Bond or yet another Rocky!

The setting for People show 115, (well they have been going since 1966), is the Wild West where “men look like men and women look like women”, complete with songs and a ukulele, about heading west, getting filthy rich and living the American dream.

Although Play Dead bases itself in stereotype, it descends into a more sinister place where the actors true selves are shown in place of their clichéd selves, before ‘normality' resumes and the characters are off on the next part of their adventure, starting with the classic “she's a virgin who like's to teach” number.

As the show progresses, the aftertaste of fear and misery begins to filter through the whole story, as the evil Black Jack, (Gareth Brierley), contracts Tuberculosis and spits blood everywhere, as Nicola Blackwell's Miss Deborah slips into the depths of alcoholism.

The whole show culminates in a raunchy dance scene, full of simulated sexual acts and provocation. The whole show is even taken through to the final curtain call where all the actors are still suffering the effects of their various afflictions with Blackwell, actually falling off the stage at the end!

Play Dead is a dark and sinister piece of drama full of inventive ideas, excellent comic acting and a cameo by a George Bush-esque cow. Miss this show at your peril!