As a fan of immersive theatre, I was intrigued to see this version of Steven Berkoff's {Dahling You Were Marvellous} in Greenside's Infirmary Street bar. As a setting it offers the opportunity for alternative staging, while the ability to mix and mingle with the audience brings its own challenges – but ample opportunities too. And Edinburgh Fringe, as a wider setting, is the ideal place to present a play that parodies, satirises and explores the idiosyncrasies of a variety of thespian types.

As we arrive, the cast (which is large, for a Fringe show) awaits us in character, wearing a variety of mix-and-match costumes. The colour scheme is red, black, golds and white, with leather, fishnets, military jackets, Doc Martin boots and clown-like make-up. Parts of the costumes change during the piece: items are taken from a hat stand and worn for periods to denote actors playing different characters. It's sort-of glamorous and visually appealing, but it's at odds with the dialogue, which suggests we're meeting a variety of theatre, film and TV actors – not the cast of a show that apparently resembles a sort of Rocky Horror meets Cirque De Soleil.

Another confusing factor is that the diction and vocal clarity of some of the players is not up to an immersive setting, where they will inevitably be speaking with their backs to much of the audience. There's also a good deal of simultaneous dialogue and talking over each other; these are effective and theatrically interesting tools when used as intimate asides to those in the vicinity, but here it was sometimes the case that each set of performers would project loudly, resulting in a cacophony. As a result, I struggled to follow the plot, and became very quickly disengaged from characters who were also not terribly believable due to a good deal of ham acting.

However, the cast are clearly trying hard here to create something interesting, and are zealous in their efforts. While it would appear that there's a lack of coaching and experience in creating real-seeming characters, the piece is slick in terms of the blocking, and the players don't miss a beat – always in the right place at the right time and remaining in their roles throughout. The concept of staging this play in a venue bar is a really good one, and has a lot of potential. But unfortunately, the result just didn't hit the mark for me.