Mappa Mundi's fine new production of Oliver Goldsmith's comedy of mistaken identities continues the company's commitment to rollicking, accessible versions of the classics. The mood here is one of playful, knowing tomfoolery under Peter Doran's bold direction, and a palpable glee takes hold from the start. The play's prologue is dispensed with: the first of many touches that open the play out to the audience. Some of these are literal: glasses of punch are served to one member of the audience until he is loudly declared "pissed as a fart".
Against Sean Crowley's elegant blank canvas of a set, which allows a home to be mistaken for an inn, Goldsmith's themes of class and snobbery unfold with delicious clarity. The performances are both ticklish and sophisticated - the actors step outside the action to address the audience directly - and yet played for traditional laughs with tremendous relish. These two comic modes embellish the play's wordy humour, building up to an extended, hilarious caper with a garden gate. The writing isn't often laugh-out-loud funny, but Doran and his dependable cast wring out every possible visual gag to great effect.
Highlights include Kathryn Dimery's delightfully shrill Mrs Hardcastle, Edward Harrison's charismatic Tony Lumpkin and Liam Tobin as bewildered host Mr Hardcastle. However, it is the pairing of Keiron Self as the deluded Marlow and Richard Nichols as the smooth Hastings, that so successfully brings the 18th-century play bang up to date. Their performances are brilliantly judged and endlessly watchable.
