THE WORLD consists of takers and the taken from, according to Dennis Kelly's dark morality tale.

After years of being buffeted by life's minor misfortunes, Gorge Mastromas settles on a simple formula which allows him to switch sides.

No longer fate's punching bag, he quickly lies, cheats and back stabs his way to the top.

You can of course smell the come down a mile off, but this being Kelly, who gave us the delightfully skewed dating comedy Pulling, there are plenty of dark twists along the way.

Kelly does indeed reach into the darkest corners to find the natural breeding ground for his boundary-testing brand of humour.

What begins as a theatrical version of Mr Creosote, with the title character gorging on others until a 'waffer-thin' slice of cruelty makes things go pop, soon gets more interesting.

Gorge instead turns upon life itself, intent on draining every last drop from his cruel former master, only to find out it saw him coming.

It's like a dark companion piece to Nick Payne's Constellations, which explored the theory there are a million different versions of ourselves floating around the cosmos - only this time Gorge attempts to wrench his own destiny from the stars.

But despite its piercing humour and unsettling shifts in tone, it feels bloated and threadbare in places, and ultimately a little one dimensional.

It never recaptures the breathless pace and creativity of the opening scene in which Gorge's formative years are recounted by a group of strangers, as if he is being raised by committee.

Tom Brooke's transformation from gormless but loveable everyman to a bitter megalomaniac eating himself from within is remarkable, and Pippa Haywood puts in a strong turn as the ruthless businesswoman who opens Gorge's eyes to a new way of life.

But Kelly seems more comfortable twisting the knife than pulling it out and wrapping things up.

While it's largely fun getting there, the climax feels overly manufactured and tidy - a long way from the messy world of dating mined so expertly in Pulling.