An American lieutenant, a Free French soldier and an English earl walk into a Piccadilly flat. It’s not the start of a joke but rather the mise-en-scène of Terence Rattigan’s effervescent 1943 comedy-cum-farce, which played for more than 1,000 morale-boosting West End performances.
There are romantic entanglements and sexual shenanigans — not to mention ambiguities — aplenty, as Bobby the earl (Philip Labey) encounters said members of the allied forces on the day before his wedding to Lady Elisabeth (Sabrina Bartlett does some terrific drunk acting, which is so very difficult to pull off).
There’s lovely work too from Dorothea Myer-Bennett as Bobby’s mistress, Mabel, a woman of both passion and pragmatism who has the most clear-eyed view of the situation of all the characters.
Paul Miller’s delightful production fizzes with fun and skilfully teases out all the nuances of a deceptively complex drama full of craftily buried home truths on the home front.
Rattigan’s work is memorably infused with the giddy freedom of a topsy-turvy world where everything may end tomorrow. Make hay with a glorious night of theatre.
Until July 27 (020 8940 3633, orangetreetheatre.co.uk)
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