by Christopher Collett

Performed at Northern Stage yesterday lunch-time as part of the 4Play season, Rosalind Wyllie’s half-hour drama Smoke & Mirrors is a sweet, life-affirming play about growing up and making the best of things.

Having graduated with a degree in Canadian studies, only-child Elli is suffering with a bad case of post-university blues. Unemployed and living with her father and twentysomething step-mum Simone - who she refers to as the swamp donkey - she spends her days watching TV and feeling sorry for herself.

But when Elli goes out speed-dating one night to break the monotony, she meets good-time girl Jas who, inadvertently, makes her begin to realise that the world does not owe her a living.

Divided into short, snappy scenes, with Elli acting as the narrator, the play moves along at a nippy pace. It is also sprinkled with some witty episodes, with one scene, in which Elli and Jas talk to their various speed-dates, revealing their contrasting attitudes: Elli is po-faced and unreceptive, while Jas wants to get drunk and forget her troubles.

If the play has a fault, it is that Jas and Rupert (the moneyed but clueless Tory boy she picks up) are a bit cartoonish. However, a confidently written and well-acted play, Smoke & Mirrors is the real deal.