In Peter Hall's revival of Sheridan's 1775 classic, Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles deliver exactly the qualities that audiences both want and expect.
Keith's linguistically challenged Mrs Malaprop is in endearing denial of her own absurdity; Bowles's Sir Anthony Absolute is the epitome of English suave.
Set within the town-house splendour of Bath, where Hall's production was staged earlier this year, Sheridan's comedy revolves around a quartet of lovers and the alliance formed between Malaprop and Absolute to marry his son to the heiress in her charge.Little does Malaprop know that the affair she seeks to break up in order to make way for the nuptials is in fact between the two people she intends to unite.
Other than when Bowles switches from charm to unnerving threat to get his son to bow to his will, the rewards come from the cast further down the billing.
Robyn Addison's Lydia Languish and Tam Williams's Captain Jack supply the play's main romantic interest, but it is Annabel Scholey as Lydia's cousin Julia and Tony Gardner as the paranoid Faulkland who are the far more interesting duo.
In every other respect this revival is what we have lately come to expect from Hall - a beautifully spoken, perfectly paced, faultless production that holds few surprises.
(Tel: 0845 481 1870)