Famine zones are more fun than this play: Dancing at Lughnasa, at the Olivier Theatre, reviewed

Snowflakes, an excellent title, rehashes The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter. A guest in a hotel room is visited by two intruders posing as staff. The intruders are hired assassins who accuse the guest of committing a half-explained hate crime on social media. His punishment, execution, will be livestreamed as a warning to other hate criminals.

It’s a thrilling start but the show lacks tension and the accused’s back story isn’t explained fully. And once the sentence has been carried out, the story becomes predictable. The core idea – freelance killers dispensing justice on behalf of tech giants – would make a great TV series. It needs a lot of development.

Village Idiot, another great title, is a state-of-the-nation play set in a village that stands on the route of HS2. The bulldozers can’t flatten the last remaining property because a stubborn granny refuses to take the developer’s shilling and sell up.