Unmistakable feel of stodge

The Actors Company serves up Arthur Wing Pinero's late 19th-century play like substandard mashed potato: its production has an unmistakable feel of stodge, when it should be light and fluffy.

Rose Trelawny, the juvenile lead in a failing Victorian theatre, quits the stage to marry a gentleman, the drippy Arthur Gower (Frank Morris). But after a period of probation in grandfather Gower's stultifyingly genteel, upper middle-class home, she returns to acting before the hardhearted Sir Gower (Robert Rowe) overcomes his prejudice about the respectability of actors.

Pinero pioneered a new, socially conscious drama, but the mode here is meant to be comic and Diana Hillier's production is never particularly amusing.

And though there's nothing terribly wrong with most of the performances, there's nothing very memorable about them either. Sian Maddock gives a cheery, sweet-enough turn as Rose but too many of the actors fluff their lines, and force-feed us their characters' cuddly eccentricities and warm-heartedness. Pinero is a witty observer of human foibles and there's a Dickensian tang to his caricatures but they lack vulgar vibrancy here.

Smothered by clumsy set changes, Pinero's comedy about changing Victorian values and theatrical styles falls prey to general insipidity.

Until Nov 3, New Players Theatre, Villiers Street WC2, Mon to Sat 7.30pm (no perf tonight), Oct 20 and 27 mats 2.30pm, £10 to £35. Tel: 0870 060 0100 Tube: Charing Cross/ Embankment

The Actors Company Rep Season 2007: Trelawny Of The Wells
New Players Theatre
The Arches, Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG