I MUST confess I have a problem with farce.
I couldn't muster a smile during the whole two hours – and I'll laugh at virtually anything – but those around me were in gales of laughter – one lady declaring afterwards she 'hadn't laughed so much in years'.
Either this poor lady had endured an unusually arduous few years before arriving at the Devonshire Park that evening or farce is – like Marmite or anchovies – something which people either love or hate.
All the elements of farce are certainly present and correct – duplicity ('everyman' John Smith is a London cabbie who is juggling two wives and two houses), confusion, complication, and trousers around the ankles.
John Smith – played very competently by David Callister – sees his life unravel when a bump to the head sees him going to the wrong wife's house at the wrong time, throwing off his tight schedule.
The police (Mark Wingett and Barry Howard) and John's neighbours (Melvyn Hayes and Paul Henry) get involved, while John desperately tries to keep his two wives (Michelle Morris and Tiffany Graves), and two lives, apart.
Ray Cooney obviously ran out of inspiration at the end of two hours of hectic comings and goings and substituted a cheap gag for a resolution – and the production isn't helped by some duff roles (Paul Henry is in a particularly thankless part) and an underwhelming set.
The play certainly won't ever win any awards for political correctness – at times the script seems lifted from a 1970s playground scrap between two particularly childish 10-year-olds.
If Ray Cooney had spent more time on the plot and less time thinking up synonyms for the word 'gay', this may have been a far more amusing experience.
Nevertheless, many of the Eastbourne audience were having a fine old time and if farce is your bag, no doubt this production will tickle your funny bone.