Two Sisters at the Lyceum Edinburgh

The Lyceum's artistic director David Greig is always pushing the boundaries in (mostly) exciting new productions. And so it is with the theatre's latest offering which Greig himself has written.

Two Sisters really starts in the bar beforehand, where questionnaires are strewn across tables, waiting for us to divulge our memories of life when we were 16.

It's not a survey. The answers become part of the play, so the dialogue is different each night. And each night they are performed by a crowd of youngsters (probably just 16!) who form the Chorus at Greig's imaginary holiday park where sisters Emma and Amy recall their childhood holidays there and look at how and what they have become.

Basically, that's it! It's little more than a trip down Memory Lane and, at two hours 40 minutes, it's a long trip which, at times, I wished had had some short cuts. And with the sky literally falling in (the backdrop was in the process of falling down) together with the occasional lack of pace, it did feel a bit amateurish.

'The sisters' do, however, put in convincing performances. Both award-winners, Shauna Macdonald, famous for her roles in horror films, is Amy, a 43-year-old in black tights and mini-skirts, who has been thrown out by her husband after he…well, you'll have to see the play to find out why. Meanwhile, lawyer sister Emma, played by Jess Hardwick, has rented a caravan at the rather seedy Holiday Heaven Caravan Park in order to write a book and isn't happy about the intrusion.

They are well enough well-rounded characters you can feel for and there are some funny moments, but the play never goes deep enough, especially considering how long it is, even when Lance (Erik Olssen), the park's hippy caretaker and Amy's first love, comes onto the scene and things get complicated.

Image Jess Shurle

Two Sisters is at the Lyceum Edinburgh until March 2

Box Office: 0131 248 4848

lyceum.org.uk