By MICHAEL CONNOCK

Marlon Brando's Corset is a new comedy by Guy Jones which has hot-footed it from the Edinburgh Festival to the Greenwich Theatre.

Starring Les Dennis, Mike McShane and Jeremy Edwards, the absurd but enjoyable plot centres around a top-rating TV soap opera set in a hospital - Healing Hands. Behind the success and the smiles, however, all is not well and a grizzly murder takes place.

The cult of celebrity is the central theme examined by the play, and how the popularity of certain Z-listers can rise or fall at the drop of a hat in the eyes of the fickle public.

On this level the show raises some interesting issues. Surely the harrowing events in places such as the Sudan are more important than what someone in the public eye looks like without their make-up on? Well in this day and age, it would appear not.

What takes Marlon Brando's Corset to a different level is the casting.

Les Dennis' character, the soap's scriptwriter Nick, complains the human race should be spending its time saving the planet rather than voting some "whacky retard" out of the Big Brother house.

But hold on a minute. Isn't this Les Dennis the tabloid fall-guy who you voted out of Celebrity Big Brother a few years back?

And hold on another minute. Vain OK! Magazine muppet Will is played by Jeremy Edwards - is he the same chap who not only spent years in Holby City but was also a houseguest of the lovely Davina McCall? Yes indeed.

It seems Guy Jones has an axe to grind about working with actors, as his cast within a cast delivers lines about how they must "commune with the camera" and "get under the skin of my character".

They even complain when they don't get enough lines.

Now this may all be delivered as a series of jokes but, as someone with a background in theatre, I can tell you I have heard all of the above said seriously by certain thesps on many occasions.

Who's taking the mickey out of who? You decide.

Despite the star turns, Marlon Brando's Corset is more of an ensemble show. Mike McShane, as the show's director, soap hunk Jeremy Edwards, and Les Dennis are complemented by comedian Jim Field Smith, Kellie Ryan and Jennifer Tollady who play the cast members of Healing Hands, and who all scramble to cover up a murder to ensure their rise to fame is not interrupted.

Marlon Brando's Corset is a witty and amusing production, delivered with energy and pace. If you fancy a good laugh with a few layers of interesting subtexts, I'd recommend it.

Marlon Brando's Corset, until September 30. Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, Greenwich. Box office 020 8858 7755 or visit greenwichtheatre.co.uk