Meet the mother-in-law: "She'll find your weakness and drag it round the room in triumph." Well, it's one way to welcome a newcomer to the family. Bill MacIlwraith's 1966 comedy recounts the gathering of three sons at their widowed mother's house, to celebrate her 40th wedding anniversary. Two come bearing surprises. Tom has arrived with his new fiancee, while Terry is planning to emigrate to Canada. Only elder brother Henry has nothing to reveal: with his public fetish for women's underwear, he has already exposed himself quite enough.
If the shindig that ensues makes Abigail's Party look refined by comparison, it's because mum isn't about to let her brood disperse without a fight. Cattier than a pride of lions, Sheila Hancock's monstrous ma engages teeth, nails and more besides to fend off the daughters-in-law and psychologically torture her boys into submission.
It's a plum comic part, and Hancock has plenty of fun with it. But the play does little more than restate her wickedness over and over again. If the second act were as brief as the first, it all might pass snappily enough to excuse the broad characterisation, random plot twists and ever-decreasing cycles of slanging and squabbling. As it is, watching The Anniversary is like watching a tag-wrestling bout, in which increasingly unlikely characters deploy ever more improbable manoeuvres to manipulate and abuse one another.
The performances, though, are uniformly enjoyable in Denis Lawson's Liverpool Playhouse production. Locked in a battle for her husband's heart, Rosie Cavaliero's Karen is more than a match for her Cruella de Vil-esque in-law. Not so Madeleine Worrall's Shirley, the kittenish newcomer whose flashing claws draw no blood. And the eyes are often drawn to John Marquez - perhaps because, as the sullen Terry, he is the least showy component of a play that, like Robin Don's period set, favours strident colours.
· Until April 23. Box office: 0870 890 1104.
