A 'ragbag of diplomatic gossip', an 'albino petit provocateur' with a 'name that sounds like a cheap cologne' – these are among the epithets applied to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in this 'Wikiplay', sourced from the public domain and written by Assange's fellow Australian Ron Elisha.
Assange (Darren Weller) is portrayed in the piece as a slob, a flirt, an arch-manipulator and a rampant egotist, convinced of his own heroism and his power to change the world. But then, nobody, from Obama to Cameron to Medvedev, emerges with much clarity or complexity in an intermittently diverting, glib work that wields about as much heft and analysis as an instalment of 'Spitting Image'.
It's a scrappy, episodic biodrama that follows Assange's controversial career as he finds himself accused of rape and threatened with extradition to the US – a development he insists is a fit-up by a nervous and vengeful political establishment.
The eight-strong company of Lucy Skilbeck's slick production inhabit their crudely drawn characters with verve, but the whole is too cartoonish to offer any real revelation.