A commercial flop in 1980, Enjoy is the odd man out in the Alan Bennett oeuvre. But Christopher Luscombe's well-cast revival is not only packing out the Watford Palace Theatre, but proves Bennett's portrait of our vain attempts to marinate a disappearing working-class culture was streets ahead of its time.
Setting the action in the last of the Leeds back-to-backs, Bennett contrasts the fractious reality of family life with the absurdity of turning it into a branch of the heritage industry. To this end, Bennett shows an elderly couple, the irascible Wilf and the houseproud Connie, being silently scrutinised by a sociologist who turns out to be their estranged son in drag. It is this last figure, "Ms Craig", who is the play's weakest link: there is no real tension between his dual role as scientific observer and family outcast.
Nevertheless, the first half, showing the old couple's wilful blindness to the fact that daughter Linda is not exactly a "personal secretary", is full of wry Bennett observation. The action really takes wing with the eruption of next door's Mrs Clegg, acting out the role of selfless northern neighbour. As played by Carol Macready, she oozes pseudo-genteel self-satisfaction.
John Arthur, as the disabled Wilf, and Sue Wallace, as the fussily domestic Connie are first-rate. And Josie Walker's Linda is at her best when, after rolling enthusiastically around the carpet with a chauffeur, she remarks to the watching sociologist, "Don't imagine this is the norm."
Put anyone in a glass-case, suggests Bennett, and they become fatally self-conscious; which is what makes this richly enjoyable play applicable not just to the heritage industry, but to the bogus modern world of reality television.
· Until March 3. Box office: 01923 225671.
