The geek shall inherit the earth

The geek shall

inherit the earth

The age of the anorak is surely upon us. Dan O'Brien - computer magazine editor, Spitting Image scriptwriter and all-round digital thesp - has taken his Edinburgh Fringe show, Caught in the Net, and brought it to the West End. Based around the life and times of the Internet and O'Brien himself, Caught in the Net is a one-man-and-his-modem multimedia show. Not to mention the love interest: will the hacker get the girl before the computers get her goat? Along the way there are diversions into DIY nuclear weapons, pirate TV and Trekkies - all part of the brand new Net frontier. The show could easily have been a rather sickly technofest, but O'Brien's a natural-born enthusiast with the ineffable benefit of objectivity. Also he knows how to be funny as well as how to program an IBM PC; it's a rare mix and an effective one. You no more have to be a techie to enjoy Caught in the Net, than you need to be an astrophysicist to appreciate Red Dwarf. The first roadshow on the Information Superhighway is funny, hip and engagingly gawkish in turn. Not unlike O'Brien himself.

Arts Theatre, 6-7 Gt Newport St, WC2 (071-836 2132) 7.30pm, Suns 12, 19, 26 Mar, 9 Apr; £7.50/£5