THE second of three A Play, A Pie, and A Pint co-productions with the National Theatre of Scotland, showcasing the work of young Chinese writers, Hao Jingfang's Thieves and Boy, adapted and directed by Davey Anderson, is a black comedy crime caper about two construction workers.

They are out to set the world to rights, or, at the very least, to attempt to redress some sort of balance between China's have and have-nots, Robin Hood-style.

Fuelled by a righteous sense of injustice, after a corrupt high-ranking government official involved in a hit and run posted on the internet looks likely to get off scot-free, unlikely burglars Ping and Lei (Ross Allan and Martin Docherty) decide to break into his penthouse and grab the dead boy's family some compensation in the form of hard cash.

China is a country going through change precipitated by a consumer boom. Robberies of corrupt officials, with thieves relying on the fact that their victims will be unwilling to report the loss of their ill- gotten gains to the police, are apparently on the increase.

To that end, Ping and Lei's expressions of anger and disillusionment at those in high places with their noses in the trough mirrors our own misgivings over the MPs' expenses scandal, and other abuses of power.

But while the play ticks along nicely enough, and at times resembles Gregory Burke's Gagarin Way in its exploration of class and economic divisions when the Governor's son, played by Marco Chiu, becomes a hostage to fortune, it never explodes, or expands, dramatically enough to drive its socio-political points home with any real lingering force.

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