Love’s a Luxury (tour – Colchester)

Ian Dickens’ production keeps all this froth whisking about and reminds us that this takes place in the 1950s, perhaps a simpler time than now when trains were frequent, houses had only one telephone and village people were constantly available to housekeep. Giles Watling plays the not-so-erring husband with panache – Charles Pentwick is, after all, a theatrical impresario – and there are well-contrasted portraits of his wife and an actress friend by Nicola Weeks and Jennifer Biddall.

The comedy lead is Bobby Bentley, an actor fresh from a triumph in Charley’s Aunt (is it merely a coincidence that Dickens’ next new production is of the Brandon Thomas classic?). David Callister is very funny when dragged-up as the missing housekeeper but perhaps not entirely credible as the preferred suitor of Melissa Clements’ Molly. Richard Walsh makes the most of the preposterous Mr Mole and there’s a neat sketch of Mrs Harris by Katie Evans.