Alan Ayckbourn is a man of many parts. Alongside his adult comedies and children's fantasies, he has co-written a host of musicals and revues, mainly with composer Paul Todd. This delightful chamber piece, dating from 1981, shows that these were no idle diversions but a way of exploring his continuing obsessions.
Ayckbourn has always been haunted by the nuclear family's ability to deprive women of emotional, intellectual and even physical fulfilment. Here he wittily embodies that idea by showing 36-year-old Mary Yately first dreaming that she is to be the local paper's "mum of the year" and then contrasting that with domestic reality. His deftest touch is to divide Mary into three, so that her frustrated diurnal self is shadowed, and often mocked, by her cool, worldly superego and her ragingly sensual id - an idea that Ayckbourn took even further in 1985 in the surreal, hallucinatory Woman in Mind.
The great advantage of this device is that it allows Ayckbourn as lyricist and Todd as composer to explore a variety of musical idioms. All three Marys join forces for a hilarious maypole dance in praise of partner-swapping. The mordant Myself sharply recalls the betrayal of a marital promise that teaching the children to speak would be a joint affair. And the inflammatory I vamps a reporter shamelessly in a surprisingly dirty torch song, Open for Love.
In Kim Grant's revival, the three heroines are somewhat unflatteringly costumed in pink bodices and balloon trousers. But Jacqui Charlesworth, Jessica Martin and Stephanie Putson as the three Marys and Nigel Richards as both local hack and husband sing and act with style. In a season when mush is licensed, this show offers a refreshingly astringent hymn to victimised, divided women everywhere.
· Until February 7. Box office: 020-8940 3633.
