"At least you know your husband's name," says Belinda Treherne, who has carelessly mislaid her husband before she has been properly introduced to him. "Of course I do," replies her friend Minnie. "It's on all his pocket handkerchiefs."
Wildean wit combines deliciously with farce and some tart observations on how money makes the world go round in Tim Carroll's delightful revival of this 1877 farce by WS Gilbert - a writer normally harnessed with Sullivan, but here running free and clearly enjoying it. It begins on the Scottish borders, where heiress Belinda finds her elopement to Gretna Green with her impecunious lover, Belvawney, halted by a derailment. It ends in high society London with Belinda, Minnie and a Scottish lassie all laying claim to Cheviot Hill. (The latter, by the way, is a rich but thrifty gentleman, not an undulating landscape.)
The production makes the most of the Orange Tree's intimate in-the-square configuration to dust the cobweb's off this century-old comedy. It toys with high-spirited farce but also vigorously satirises the way marriage is viewed entirely as monetary arrangement. Nobody's blushes are spared, least of all those of the women who quickly declare undying love and passion only to discard the object of their affection as soon as a better prospect or investment comes along. When Belinda asks: "What have I in common with tarts?", while pooping one of the jam variety into her mouth, the audience can only snigger.
We have to be clear what we are talking about here: a really superior Christmas bauble, not a neglected satirical masterpiece. But it is dispensed with such style, coupled to such a mixture of absurd silliness and sly knowingness about human nature, that you can't help falling for its charms. It is a while since I have laughed out loud quite so frequently in the theatre, and at two hours the hilarity doesn't outstay its welcome. There is not a single person - male or female - in this excellent cast to whom I wouldn't consider a long or short engagement. Like Belinda, you end up loving them all with an impetuous passion.
Until January 11. Box office: 020-8940 3633.