Alas, poor Roger

Playwright Marie Jones, whose The Blind Fiddler is at the Assembly Rooms, explains why she enjoyed Hamlet - A Stand-Up

Roger Westberg has been performing this show for some time, but when I saw him it was only the second time he had done the whole thing in English. This is amazing given that he's Swedish, and that he's using a different accent for every character. The king sounds exactly like Sean Connery: that's no mean feat for a Swedish man. If I hadn't known in advance, I'd never have guessed that he's not British.

He plays 20 characters and each one is clearly defined. In fact, if I have a criticism it's that he tended to overplay each character's peculiarity. He didn't need to keep stroking his beard when he was the king; each time I saw him do it, I thought: "You've established that character now, you don't need to do that any more." And he spent a lot of time showing off how brilliant he is as a mime artist. He is a fantastic mimic. I believe he studied mime - but this is supposed to be stand-up. The show is very funny, but it would have been funnier if the mime had been a bit less good, a bit raw.

Even so, the show is a tour de force. It's wonderfully atmospheric, and the Gilded Balloon Caves' ghostliness really lends itself to the piece. There's a pianist on stage but he doesn't detract from Westberg; he just creates fantastic moods with his music. There is a remarkable scene at the beginning when two guards see Hamlet's father's ghost: Westberg keeps hiding behind a door and coming out as first one guard, then the other, while the pianist plays music that fits in beautifully.

It's vitally important with a one-man show that you like the performer, even if you don't like the characters he's playing. Westberg is winning: I immediately liked him, and it's a measure of the show that it's an hour and 10 minutes long and didn't feel like it at all.

· Hamlet - A Stand-Up is at the Gilded Balloon until August 29. Box office: 0131-668 1633