THIS play certainly falls within the Trades Descriptions Act. The action starts in darkness although supposedly the lights are on. They really do come on when a main fuse blows in the flats where the scene is set, yet the actors suddenly start groping around the stage.

THIS play certainly falls within the Trades Descriptions Act.

The action starts in darkness although supposedly the lights are on. They really do come on when a main fuse blows in the flats where the scene is set, yet the actors suddenly start groping around the stage. Then the penny drops; darkness is light and vice versa.

Once all that had been grasped you can concentrate on the main plot. The flat is occupied by an impecunious sculptor played by Matt Girt whose work has come to the attention of an extremely wealthy German art collector who is expected at the flat that very evening, hopefully to make some offers that could change the sculptor's life. He hopes the man from the electricity board will arrive to mend the fuse before the multi-millionaire gets there.

As in any good farce, other strands entwine. That same evening the sculptor's 'debutante' girlfriend, recently 'upgraded' to fiancée, has arranged for her father, a brusque army Colonel, to come and meet his prospective son-in-law. To enhance a rather bare flat the couple have 'borrowed' some classy furniture from one neighbour, a gay collector of fine porcelain, who returns unexpectedly from his weekend away. Another neighbour comes in as she is afraid of the dark on her own. Miss Furnival, the elderly daughter of a man of the cloth, is given a stiff whiskey instead of bitter lemon in the darkness... with inevitable consequences. Amid all this mayhem the dishy ex-girlfriend of the sculptor waltzes in unexpectedly. Finding her love is now engaged to another she plays the situation to cause the maximum chaos. The electricity man is German and is mistaken for the multi-millionaire.... excellent acting in such unusual circumstances.

Graham Wadeson.