Pretty weak for McDonagh, very slight and too high concept. Jim Broadbent is great (adds a star) and there are laughs, but it's often sub-Tarantino and very messy. Unlike his other plays, can't see this working at all to read on paper but amusing enough to see on stage. ( )

Nuts, brilliant, pointless, beautifully twisted? Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens turn out to be assholes whose works were written by captive pygmy sisters from the Congo, held, at least in Andersen's case, in a 3x3 box in his attic and forced to ghost-write some of the most loved works of all time. Except the original title of one was "The Little Black Mermaid." There's also time travel and machine guns hidden in concertinas, so it's a Martin McDonagh play, but even more so. ( )