Hollywood ultra-violence and dead bodies galore came to Croydon Clocktower last week when the EXIT theatre group presented the black comedy Popcorn.

Written by Ben Elton, it swipes liberally from Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and pulls no punches in mirroring the movie's body-count. Wayne and Scout are lovers and spree killers on the run. They collide with Tarantino-esque director, Bruce Delamitri, fresh back from the Oscars after picking up an award for his own intensely violent film.

The play is full of unpleasant characters and shifts the audience's empathy around looking for a focus. Elton uses this ambiguity to create some sympathy for the killers who, in their defence, are nasty because they are insane, unlike everyone else who are all drowning in vanity and self-obsession.

The play is at its most intriguing at the climax when issues of the public's ghoulish complicity in encouraging the morally repulsive acts films like Reservoir Dogs depict get an entertaining analysis.

Who is responsible for the increase in violence in society? Is it the cinema that depicts it or is that merely a reflection of the changes already present in society? Or is the lack of a single source to the problem merely an excuse for all parties involved to deny any responsibility?

The material is bursting with Ben Elton's own-brand high-speed dialogue which is a challenge to get across effectively although the players give it a game go. EXIT are a collective of volunteers with a variety of dramatic experience and they all acquit themselves with terrific enthusiasm. This was particularly true of Mark Vinson who was very natural as the smart, psychopathic, white trash Wayne and Teresa Bonanno as his devoted but deranged lover Scout.

There were a few confused cues and some lines were delivered with scant attention to comedic value but by and large the jokes worked and everyone seemed to encourage each other's performances and enjoy themselves.

On this evidence EXIT deserve credit as a good way to get involved with drama for those interested in trying the stage.