FACT met fiction as resident group The Nonentities got the new season underway at The Rose.

Sadly, the fact - the scandal surrounding John Profumo's affair with Christine Keeler in 1963 - was rather more riveting than the fiction.

Hugh Whitemore's script is an untidy mishmash of rambling, sixth form essay-style philosophising and clumsy comical anecdotes.

It surrounds a "what might have been" briefing on the saga between Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and two fictional characters, private secretary Oliver Widdowes and chirpy MI5 man Ian Ritchie.

The shortcomings of the script, of course, are not the fault of The Nonentities and on the plus side Dennis Beasley seemed a particularly good choice for the lead role, impressively conveying Macmillan's despair at a changing society.

Both he and Tim Williams (Widdowes) in particular did well just to memorise some of the lengthier passages, while Jamie Thompson (Ritchie) brought a pleasingly breezy touch to some heavy proceedings.

The play, set in a castle in Scotland, starts off promisingly as the twists and turns of the real-life drama are unveiled but deteriorates after the interval.

However, a special mention should be served for Lynn Ravenhill in the role of the adulterous Lady Dorothy Macmillan, who captured the inner turmoil and emotion of some of her scenes with aplomb. AMD