The Rivals review – heady, flapper-ish revival is stylishly silly Christmas fun

Orange Tree theatre, London

Comedy’s upper-class antics are transposed to 1920s Bath and bring a crowd-pleasing mix of anarchic spirit and silliness, though it slackens occasionally

Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy is a perfect revival for the festive period for its crowd-pleasing mix of anarchic spirit, silliness and Sheridan’s own panto dame in the word-mangling Mrs Malaprop.

Tom Littler’s 250th anniversary production transposes the 18th-century play’s upper-class antics to 1920s Bath to give it a heady, flapper-ish energy with occasional song and an exuberantly Charleston-ing cast. Littler similarly adapted his production of She Stoops to Conquer to the interwar years, but now there are PG Wodehouse elements, most subtle but one blatant reference to Jeeves and Wooster – Jack Absolute’s manservant, Fag (Pete Ashmore) is renamed Gieves.