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Minority Report review: Low-budget bid to recreate Tom Cruise's action flick falls flat, writes PATRICK MARMION

Based on Philip K Dick's 1956 sci-fi novel Minority Report, the stage adaptation follows a society that's developed brain chips to stop criminals before they act.

Most fundamentally wrong, the story of a society that’s developed brain chips to stop criminals before they act, tries to emulate the kinetic energy of Steven Spielberg’s 2002 action film version of the book, starring Tom Cruise. Car chases, alas, only work on stage as comedy and although McNee vies to take Julia seriously, there is some unusually risible acting amid dystopian clichés of interminable rain, brollies and electronic Vangelis music culled from Blade Runner. It culminates – and the irony is savage – with a sickening, tense scene in which Sara herself is put on trial, accused of going to work rather than staying at home with her son, judged ‘monstrous’ for failing to build a rapport with his case-worker.

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