With John Lithgow imported from Broadway in the lead (perhaps best known for the 1996 sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun), Timothy Sheader as director, and glorious set designs from Katrina Lindsay, this farce by Arthur Wing Pinero really cannot miss. In fact the inspired sets are worth the price of admission alone.
The decision to add songs by Richard Stilgoe and Richard Sisson is curious, but serves to cover what could be irritating gaps in the action while sets, props and people are moved into position. The story is a simple one centering on white lies, people being in places they shouldn’t be, and misunderstandings, all served at a cracking pace.
Lithgow’s Posket is the star of the show, but I also enjoyed Nicholas Burns’ ridiculous Captain Vale, Joshua McGuire’s swaggering Cis, and Roger Sloman’s proper clerk of the court (a minor comic great). Nancy Carroll as Agatha, the magistrate’s trustworthy wife (or not, as the case may be), is also a hoot.