Thomas Middleton's early 17th-century city comedy is set very particularly during Lent, a time when eating and trading in meat was forbidden. But that doesn't stop the good citizens of London from trading in human flesh.
The Yellowhammers are determined to marry their fresh young daughter Moll to Sir Walter Whorehound, even though she is in love with young Touchwood Junior. Allwit prefers to prostitute his wife to Sir Walter than work, and in one scene a young woman abandons her baby as if it were a leg of mutton.
This is a comedy dripping in blood (when Sir Walter is fatally wounded his intestines unravel like a string of sausages), and the design for this Almeida touring production places it largely in the abattoir. The plastic splash curtain is a clever touch; however, removing the play from its specific urban setting, in favour of some no man's land of either geography or period, is not so smart. The play is powered by the grasping, restless energy of the urban and the mercantile and a society in a state of flux. The abstract design fails to suggest that in any dynamic way.
Ben Harrison's production finally begins to get to grips with the play's underlying viciousness in the second half, but too often treats Middleton's satire on greed and double dealing as if it were a not very funny saucy seaside postcard or a Carry On film. You keep expecting the late Sid James to make a guest appearance.
Perhaps not surprisingly the cast frequently look as uncomfortable as a group of nuns at an orgy. The romping is all half-hearted, there is a lot of slightly desperate mugging, and since the play is written in what amounts to a series of vignettes, it is hard for such a large cast to establish themselves with the audience. The production and performances lack the necessary butcher-like precision.
Middleton's comedy may not be subtle, and his double dealers are great ones for the double entendre, but the writer knew the difference between satire and mere silliness. The production draws no such line.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 020-8940 0088. Then tours to Bath, Huddersfield and Guildford.
