Review: Rum and Coca Cola ***

Even with the aid of a little Calypso music, pulling off a two-handed play which doesn't sag around the middle is not easy. When it's your debut as a director, it's almost impossible.

Congratulations then to Don Warrington who, after a long career on the stage, has finally made the move south of the limelight.

If the audience reaction at the end of Rum and Coca Cola is anything to go by, he may now be wondering why it took him so long.

Set on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, Calypso musicians Slim and Professor are trying to make a living playing to tourists while dreaming of bigger things and better times.

Three-time Calypso champion, Professor is often full of rum and always full of tales of how international stardom, true love and romance always just eluded him.

Victor Romero Evans delivers a poignant performance of the world-weary man still proud of his roots and willing to fight for his reputation.

Slim hasn't yet been brought down by harsh reality and as the young nave musician, sure his own big break is just around the corner, Marcel McCalla was made for the part.

After the pair spend the first half trading jokes and attempting to write a new song for the annual competition, they discover that their love of music alone may not be enough to bind them together.

However, both Evans and McCalla step up to the mark and it's only the final 10 minutes, and what feels like an abrupt, anti-climactic ending that lets the show down.

Warrington may still be best-known for his role in Rising Damp, but on this evidence it may be his real talent lays in the director's chair. Rum and Coca Cola? Yes please.

To April 3.