IF only the action on stage had been as frenetic as the opening music.
Feydeau's farce, Where There's A Will, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, until tomorrow (Saturday) has a pedigree cast but is played in low gear.
Granted there are the requisiste number of doors through which the devious and harrassed characters slam, sidle, or burst on cue, but the necessary high energy is definitely lacking.
This new version by Nicki Frei is peppered with updated double entrendre, but without the pace it loses much of its impact - and it is truly filthy.
However, while the script may lack Parisian elegance, the set and costumes do not.
Sex is the driving force in this comedy of infidelity and distrust but the viagra impetus is sadly lacking in Sir Peter Hall's production.
Elaine Paige as Angèle, the wronged wife who, quite accurately as it turns out, vests the sins of the first husband on the second, turns in a mannered, often, open-mouthed performance with a low ooh, la, la factor.
The always accomplished Nicholas Le Prevost is her husband Ribadier, on whom she keeps a very close and beady eye in her every waking moment - which are oddly curtailed to her mystification but not the audience's.
The tall, lean, figure of David Warner is the would-be lover from Saigon whose arrival is the catalyst for marital chaos.
Literally bursting into the melée is the small powerhouse that is David Bamber (and who can ever forget his odious Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice?).
As the wine merchant with a grudge, he is wonderfully, effortlessly, vulgar and obsequious in turn, to the huge delight of the audience.
No farce would be complete without a saucy maid and Amanda Shillabeer as Sophie provides the essential sexy sassiness as her amorous night with the coachman (Andrew Leonard) suffers continual interruption.
Perhaps a glass or two of Ribadier's dubious Cognac would perk up the pace of this nonetheless entertaining frolic with Feydeau.
As the run progresses, hopefully the tempo will quicken as the cast shifts up a gear.
Sandy Baker