The Beast's Pen

Tim Price’s intermittently enjoyable play depicts the disintegration of a four man Indie rock band, pulled apart by personal egos, chaotic domestic lives and a huge VAT bill. The band is called The Union, the members being English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish, making the events in the play a thinly disguised metaphor for the potential break-up of the United Kingdom. It is at its most entertaining in set pieces, including musical numbers, but there are too few of them and the play often rambles aimlessly, leaving the overriding impression of a great idea that has only partially been brought to fruition.