ANY stage version of James M Cain's thriller about love, lust and murder has previous film versions to live up to.

Director Lucy Bailey gives this sleek and slick production a suitably filmic look, but something is wrong when you come out talking about the set rather than what happened on it.

Designer Bunny Christie has created an authentic American roadside diner, complete with swinging neon signs and banging shutters. There's a brilliant coup de theatre at the end of the first half as a car comes crashing down into the diner.

Jon Buswell's light-and-shadows lighting continues to brilliantly evoke the right atmosphere as the narrative turns into a police and courtroom drama after the interval.

If only the story had gripped as brilliantly as the design sets the scene as drifter Frank Chambers decides he not only wants the mechanic's job but also owner Nick's wife, Cora. Lust leads to sex and murder, although the pair aren't the most proficient of killers.

In the most recent film, the pair (played by Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange) mated memorably on the kitchen table. The play turns this initial coupling into a roughhouse of fighting and fumbling as they give in to their carnal desires.

But Patrick O'Kane and Charlotte Emmerson never provide enough heat to indicate the instant sexual attraction between macho drifter and frustrated diner waitress. Without that, there's a big hole at the centre of the production.

Until October 16. Box office 0113 213 7700.

Published: 27/09/2004