Updating Shakespeare into modern dress may be de rigeur, but it takes a lot of nerve to do the same with restoration comedy, much of the appeal of which for modern audiences - and strike me down for saying this - is the frocks. To further condense a play such as William Congreves The Way Of The World, with its labyrinthine plotting and Machiavellian machinations, to a mere 45 minutes takes even more pluck. But this is lunchtime theatre, the place of leisurely vino and quick dramatic bites, and more pertinently its a single leaf, a company that has shown its ability in the past to do exactly that. This time round, its all done to a terrific soundtrack of eighties music, with choreography thrown in, which I suppose is the way of the world. It works and its immensely enjoyable, and with characters called Mirabell and Lady Wishfort and Foible, you cant really complain about anything. The plot is simple. Or rather, it isnt. Boiled down, its all about reputations and keeping up appearances, two very twenty-first century foibles. Mirabell (a man, sweeties), and Millament want to get married, but Millaments aunt Lady Wishfort hates the young man and refuses to sanction it. In order to get hold of the £6000 dowry, a plot is resorted to in which Lady Wishfort will be forced into marriage herself with an impostor, an act which will not only result in a a bigamous union but bring disgrace upon the good lady, thus forcing her into giving the required permission. Theres more to it than that, but suffice it to say that the impostor is unmasked and everything ends happily ever after. And just to make the point, theres some dirty dancing thrown in at the end, plus a burst of Michael Jacksons Thriller, which again is the way of the world - or at least the way of this brand of superb lunchtime theatre.In other hands, this would be a difficult mix to bring off successfully, but the company knows exactly what its about, and they also know their lunchtime market. When a cast are enjoying themselves this much on stage - and at times in the audience - you cant help going with them. Lizzy Dive is gorgeous as Lady Wishfort and inhabits the stage like a queen bee, while Tom Franck does a superb job as the cool, denim-jacketed hero Mirabell. All of the cast, however, are uniformly good and inject plenty of mischief into the play - there are contemporary allusions by the dozen. This is a bright, breezy, fun-filled production of an old classic, energetically directed by Jo Kennedy, and is well worth the price of a ticket.
