SOMETIMES like the grimmest of Shakespearian tragedies, at others more like a farcical Carry On film, Four Nights In Knaresborough is not the easiest play to watch... and hear.

The four-letter words often grate - not because they are particularly offensive, but because they seem over-used and the violence too becomes repetitive.

But the play certainly has its moments, both dramatically and comically.

It concerns four nights out of a year that four knights who killed Thomas Becket spend in a castle in Knaresborough. The claustrophobic atmosphere affects the murderers in different ways and aspects of their characters are revealed - something like the Big Brother television series set in the 12th century.

Playwright Paul Webb uses contemporary language and black comedy with shocking and uncomfortable effect.

Ben Hull as Brito gets the funniest lines and action. He's the "patient" in a rough and ready tooth extraction scene, which drew a round of applause when the offending tooth was removed.

Brito is the young and randy knight who has his way with Catherine, the only woman in the castle, played in a suitably restrained way by Laura Richmond.

Matthew Rixon - son of television personality Mathew Kelly who was in the first night audience - is impressive as Traci, the intellectual knight who has a hidden love for Brito.

Fitz is the tough knight played with suitably sinister strength by Graham McTavish. He's had an affair with Traci, although both knights are married.

Then there's Morville, also in love with Catherine and made vulnerable by this. Marshall Griffin is wholly believable in the role.

Director Mark Babych brings the disparate characters together admirably although it is hard to like any of them.

Richard Foxton has excelled himself with an impressive set which starts off as the cathedral where Becket is murdered and doubles as the castle where the four are holed up.

Paul Webb has written a screenplay of Four Nights In Knaresborough. Here's a chance to see the stage version first.

Four Nights In Knaresborough

Octagon Theatre, Bolton

Runs until March 27