Theatre: Double Gazing

Brighton playwright David Weedall writes specifically for the Fringe Festival with the aim of providing "a really fun night out" - sounds obvious but sometimes you do wonder.

Often using minimalist scenery, props and trailing-edge sound, the Second Impression company have described their art as "theatre of the poor", yet it more than proves its worth in the realm of imagination, where audiences can revel in Weedall's darkly comic perspectives.

He has been doing this for nine years now and, despite his modesty, Weedall is inclined to agree that "we do pull it off every time".

Last year's hit show Clampers took a comical look at the future of parking - or rather, the lack of it.

Fastforwarding to a time when a new underclass of humanity was emerging amid worldwide gridlock, it charted the exploits of a ruthless species of young women who struck fear into the hearts of drivers by charging unaffordable release fees.

Naturally enough, the idea came to Weedall when he was clamped in a Brighton car park and this year's show is similarly inspired by the frustrations and peculiarities of contemporary living.

"There were two things behind it, really," he explains. "I live in a multiple occupancy residence and we can see right into all the houses opposite - sometimes people will walk past the windows naked, though you see much more unusual things than that. And my second inspiration was this person who came round trying to sell us a vacuum cleaner - ostensibly for ten minutes but he ended up staying for most of the day".

In Double Gazing, two men spend hours studying nubile young ladies through their binoculars. But are they simply opportunistic Peeping Toms or are their motivations even more sinister?

"It's not just voyeurism," Weedall elaborates, "because they virtually want to move in to the houses they're spying on. But I'm not saying more than that."

It could be a salesman, your boss, a relative even but the world, Weedall observes, is "full of people who invade your privacy because they think they have a right over you."

Although the perpetrators in Double Gazing get their come-uppance, with the young women turning the tables on their watchers to expose a con-trick of the most bizarre nature, Weedall's intimate theatrical experience will no doubt draw its strength from our very modern phobias about 'personal space'.

"Ever felt like you were being watched?" runs the tag-line. Could these two avid bird-spotters be living opposite you? You probably won't be sure of anything after the bluffs, double-bluffs and an especially twisted twist in the tale. But then, as Weedall observes, "real life is pretty absurd."

Ticket price includes free salsa lesson and free entry to the Club New York nightclub.

Club New York, 7.30pm, £6.50, 01273 709709