Three Farces

Ubiquitous in the mid-Victorian era, master of the one-act farce John Maddison Morton had already faded into obscurity by the time he died in 1891. He's sporadically threatened to come back into fashion since, but despite the best efforts of champions like Kenneth Tynan, director Henry Bell's 'Three Farces' marks the first serious Morton revival since the nineteenth century.

Pleasingly, 'Slasher & Crasher', 'A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion' and 'Grimshaw, Bagshaw & Bradshaw' reveal themselves as more than historical curios. Well crafted, gently mischievous pieces in which staid society men suddenly find their comfortable lives plunged into lunatic disorder by forces beyond their control, you can see their fingerprints all over the last century, from 'The Two Ronnies' and 'Fawlty Towers' to Orton's 'The Ruffian on the Stair' (which owes considerable debt to 'A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion').

Still, I suspect these plays could have been serviced more convincingly. Old pros Clive Francis and Stuart Fox are excellent across a variety of roles, but their comic timing and gift for ironic ad libbing are not matched by the younger members of the cast (though Daniel Cheyne's ukulele-playing compere is great fun). And a 15-minute interval after each half-hour play dulls the momentum of what should have been a night of short, sharp hysterics.