Some wags might think THE CANTERBURY TALES is the arse end of a Bulldog, but a production bearing that name currently being presented at New Theatre is rather a bowdlerised version of Chaucer’s capering collection of bawdy social commentary.

In the original text, the tales were presented as part of a story telling contest, but in this eclectic version, created by Constantine Costi, James Vaughan and Michael Costi, the tales become acts in a talent quest.

The show opens with a traditional rendering of the The Summoner’s Tale, a story of cuckoldry and revenge delivered in in Middle English as a puppet show, performed by the core cast of Ryan Carter, John Grinston, Sarah Jane Kelly, Zoe Jensen, Andrew Lindqvist, Marty O’Neill and Danielle Stamoulus.

From there the play segues into a contemporary talent show complete with clueless compere (Ryan Carter) and a quartet of camera operators whose captured images are projected on a monitors hung above the stage.

First contestant is Brandon Vu, a yo yo master, whose skill with string and bauble is stunningly synchronised. A spinner winner.

The pendulum then swings to a magician – not with cape and wand pulling rabbits out of a hat – but in casual clobber pulling beers out of a bamboo mat. Cheers all round.

Then a couple of Speaker’s Corner philosophers who give eloquent and sage advice about living your life and being politically aware.

The hackles of some hecklers went up with the introduction of Etienne, a hypnotist via satellite that just about euthanased any energy the show had mustered.

More contemporised Chaucerian skits are performed, highlighted by Marty O’Neill’s clear diction elegance of the ineloquent. Very funny.

A curates egg of a production – a fab tap routine by Sarah Jane Kelly and a selfie aria by camera operator Kyle Stephens on the plus side – slapdash stage craft and narrative linking on the negative, this experimental work has elements of eloquence but no finesse.