BWW Reviews: THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY, The Unicorn Theatre, March 13 2010

What happens when facts guide your every waking minute, but, suddenly, facts become as unreliable as the subtleties of body language and "white lies"? Ted, an autistic teenager, faces this problem in Carl Miller's loyal adaptation of the late Siobhan Dowd's novel at the Unicorn Theatre (until 18 April). With nods to "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" and television's "Monk", Dowd's story requires Ted to use his exhaustive analysis of the facts to work through all the possible reasons for his cousin Salim's disappearance during a trip on the eponymous wheel and so solve the Mystery.

The story's plotting is fine for the pre-teen and teenage audience at which the play is aimed, but adults will find it a little too much like an old episode of Scooby-Doo. Fortunately, there is much else to enjoy, not least the splendid performances of John Cockerill as Ted and Amaka Okafor as his sister Kat, supported by other regulars from the Unicorn's past productions. Parents will squirm with recognition, as Ted's entreaties to be heard are rejected in favour of adult / "normal" approaches to dealing with their trauma. They'll be shocked too - not at Salim's motivation for his disappearance (that tensions between parents and selfish behaviour affects teenagers exploring the Early Stages of adulthood is hardly news) - but at Ted's swift descent from engaging oddness to self-harming whirlwind, as his family externalise their anxieties by attacking him. Salim's and Ted's different psychological maps distance them from their families but, contrary to what they are told by all the adults they meet, they find out that their only obligation is to be true to themselves, then wait for the adults to accept them and become their friends.   

Anna Fleischler's wonderfully flexible set keeps pushing the actors into the close proximity that distresses Ted but characterises urban life. There's a lot of jumping about, but mercifully little of the shouting equals emoting school of acting from the multi-ethnic cast. The frequent use of quotes from The Tempest rather slows the plot - and pace is critical in children's theatre - but the play never loses its audience and satisfies them with a resolution that ties up all the loose ends. As ever, the Unicorn provides a superb destination around which to build a family outing in London and for just a few pounds more than the noise, special effects and popcorn that has become the multiplex experience. And unlike the London Eye, you don't have to queue in the rain for The London Eye Mystery.