BWW Reviews: THE ALCHEMYSTORIUM, Greenwich Theatre, March 6 2012

The Alchemystorium is a cafe run by two gals and one guy who are desperately keen for business and totally dedicated to getting their coffee just right. This coffee does rather more than buzz one's fuzzy morning mind with caffeine – this coffee sends its customers (and the cafe's staff) down the seldom straight path of love. With no words spoken, the three actors tell their tales through the use of puppets (representing audience members who are deemed to have fallen in love at the drop of a arabica bean), mime, a little moaning and squealing and plenty of clowning.

Sam Worboys and Katie Cooper are initially a squabbling pair riling the cafe's most committed worker, Lizzie Franks, so much that she sends them packing... but coffee does its work, the light dawns and the bickering and cantankerous pair are soon a billing and cooing pair and back at the cafe. Lizzie is soon a gooseberry and pining over her lost Mr Right for whom she sets off on a search. The three have plenty of chemistry between them and develop a nice rapport with the audience, playing off the musical backing tracks nicely as the cafe struggles but love blooms.

The Alchemysorium is an old-fashioned show with interesting, if not exactly new, things to say about love and its impact on those whom Cupid's arrow strikes. Though a little lost in the cavernous Greenwich Theatre (it would work better in a more intimate setting) the menage-a-trois win us over and all's well that ends well. Gomito Productions have a pleasant one hour diversion for teenagers and grown-ups, but they may want to consider toning down some of the mildly sexual references to attract a family audience to this gentle musing on one of life's greatest mysteries.

Gary Naylor is chief reviewer for westend.broadwayworld.com and feels privileged to see so much of London's theatre. He writes about cricket at nestaquin.wordpress.com and also for The Guardian, Spin Cricket and Channel Five and commentates at testmatchsofa.com. His writing on films and other subjects is at tootingtrumpet.wordpress.com. Comments are always welcome.

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