The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much @ Pleasance Courtyard

In Voloz Collective's The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, Roger is a French advertising executive in 1960s New York. While drafting copy aimed at men, he struggles to find the right words to promote silicone implants. His secretary, Gretchen, comes to the rescue; Roger incorporates her terrible, sexist suggestions without suspecting her ulterior motives.

On an ordinary day, Roger buys coffee at Starbucks, served by a mysterious Russian barista. Routine quickly falls apart. A woman spills coffee on him and, when he arrives at work, he discovers the building has been blown up. Worse still, Gretchen has died in the rubble… or has she?

The plot is unconvincing; we never understand why Roger becomes a target of the Russian mafia, or why this sends him on a globetrotting adventure. But who needs narrative logic when an excellent ensemble, trained together at Lecoq, is determined to demonstrate every trick in the book? A horse, a scarf caught in the wind, a man trudging through snow, another miming an escape from a high-rise. Even newspaper birds make an appearance.

There are genuinely wonderful moments: bullets that take ages to reach their target, and our favourite, a psychedelic sequence where Roger tries to fool a facial-recognition scanner (a fun anachronism, much like the Starbucks) which forces him into desperate contortions. The Russians, recognisable by their Ray Charles-style dark glasses, exude a cool, rock ’n’ roll style. Red lighting and sustained synthesiser chords slow everything down and give a rare chance to simply savour the vibe.

An opportunity is missed with Roger. When he asks himself: “What kind of man are you?”, the question hints at an exploration of masculinity but is quickly abandoned. By the end, we were left wondering what, beneath the Scooby Doo-esque final twist, this show wanted to say.

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The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, Pleasance Courtyard (Forth), until 30 Aug (not 12, 19), 10.40am, £16.50-£18