When you analyse Tim Stoppard's clever circular farce Rough Crossing you realise how little actually happens.  You see how this yarn of two pompous playwrights playing Cupid on an ocean liner sends you dizzy, spinning round and round in circles.

But herein lies the ingenuity of the script, spoofing the rum fun of Noel Coward's comedies and 1930s slapstick with craft and skill.  A wordsmith's dream, the laughs are drawn  out by incisive wordplay and cutesy puns.

Harry Meacher leads the way as scheming Sandor Turai with an expert attention to detail.  Full of incredulous looks and hilarious indignation, his performance is a genuine delight.

Meacher is supported up by an exemplary cast, never out of their depth tackling these cognac soaked fools.

Peter Stenson deserves praise for his performance as Turai's scoffing sidekick Alex Gal, while Rainer Wiseman makes much mirth from his less than steady ship's steward.

And Keith Drinkel is perfect as the bumbling melodramatic Ivor Fish, the source of most of the mishaps aboard the luxury liner.

Nicola Goodchild had me on side when I read the sarcastic note in her programme notes:  "TV roles do not include The Bill".  Her performance wasn't bad either with lashings of melodrama as the ridiculous Natasha Navratilova.

The promise of musical numbers is eventually fulfilled but, given that the cast seemed more than comfortable with this sing-a-long fare, a few more would have provided some relief from the frothy wordplay.

Accordingly some of the extended exchanges, while cleverly devised, become a little tiresome.

The wit of the script and skill of the cast, however, rescues the day.  Sinking into newly padded-seats I wondered whether I had ever seen a disappointing play at this market leader of fringe playhouses.

This charming pastiche was no exception to the rule.

RICHARD OSLEY

There have been two major adaptations of Ferenc Molnar's 'The Play at the Castle' into English.  The first, 'The Play's the Thing' by PG Wodehouse, was greeted with boos.  The second, by Tom Stoppard, was more courteously received when it premiered in 1983, but it has rarely been revived and the piece is generally regarded as something of an oddity - and not without reason, since on the face of it, 'Rough Crossing' is a very un-Stoppardian thing, a light romantic comedy with songs.

Scratch beneath the (very superficial) surface, however, and what you find seems less uncharacteristic.  Two writers, two actors and a composer are travelling to New York on an ocean liner, trying to find a new ending for a script.  When romantic strife threatens the enterprise, salvation is sought in the gymnastic contortions of the English language, and the ability to make reality look like play-acting and vice versa.

There's much to enjoy in Alexander Holt's sturdy production of this very knowing farce, which is essentially structured around a series of variations on the ways of saying 'have a drink'.  The excellent cast - led by Harry Meacher's saturnine Sandor Turai - squeeze a great deal of fun out of the visual gags and linguistic puns. 

ROBERT SHORE