Princely wails of laughter

Thirty-five years ago, when theatre censorship still existed, this gentle if not quite gentlemanly spoof of Prince Charles's doomed marriage to Diana, would have been banned from public performance. You could not then impersonate or make fun of the royal family on stage. But the vigorous low comedy of Love Upon the Throne, in which Patrick Barlow wearing bizarre regalia plays both the Queen and Prince Charles, scarcely relies on royal mockery. Barlow's amusing brand of satire depends upon presenting the royal romance as if a soap opera jointly written by an intense nine-year-old and tabloid hacks. "I am just going out to conduct the State opening of Parliament ...

So Lady Di, what have you enjoyed best about staying here with the royal family?" variously remarks Barlow's nicely wooden though preposterous HM. The actor flaunts blue accessories - handbag, hat and cloak, with scarlet sash and grey suit underneath. This language and costuming ensures that incongruous formality always reigns. Charles and Diana, not to mention Camilla, who exists only on the end of a mobile phone, express their love as if mouthing Press comments about themselves.

A second source of pleasure springs from the theatrical rivalry between the National Theatre of Brent's two players and a mockery of bad actors. Barlow in his usual role of Desmond Olivier Dingle, cultivates the air and solecisms of some deeply smug royalist official from outer suburbia, while struggling to check and correct the incompetence and exuberance of John Ramm as Raymond Box. Box is a scene-stealing sort of thespian who does not let the fact he is wearing a suit prevent him from giving us his Diana.

Wisely there's no allusion to Diana's ghastly finale. But Ramm's impersonation of the Princess exchanging innocence for anger in the language of psychobabble and clich? is, oddly, almost touching. The laughter, in Martin Duncan's clever production with its glittering kitsch design, comes from audiences recognising our obsession with royal myths.

? Until 5 September. Box office: 0131 226 2428; at the Bush Theatre, London 8-26 September. Box office: 0181 743 3388.

Love Upon The Throne