Choice: Theatre

The Chic Nerds, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-228 1404) 8pm

Remember the Milli Vanilli scandal? The band was famously exposed as pretty but talent-free when the world discovered that their voices were not their own. Conversely there was the case of The Monkees. According to Dr Louise Levene, The Independent's Monkees correspondent, the members of the Sixties TV and pop sensation did their own singing but, - horrors - other people played the instruments. The power and importance of image in the rock industry is at the heart of Ronan O'Donnell's play. This is no Spinal Tap bio-pic. There is a strong sound score, but no songs for a start, the writing plays strange games with time and the dialogue is far more lush and baroque than the usual lice-of-life banter of the "rockumentary" school. Intriguingly, this mainstage production is of an entirely unsolicited script of a first play. The Traverse is providing more than just hope for new writers.

David Benedict