★★★★

IN ALL comedy, timing is crucial – but in farce it is everything. And this Eastbourne Theatres production of 1980s French romp Don’t Dress For Dinner does not miss a beat.

Polly Lister is superb from the off, setting a relentless pitch and tempo which barely abates for two hours as she writhes and roars down the phone on hearing news that her lover – husband Bernard’s best friend – is coming to stay for the weekend.

This is not to give away the plot: the six central characters indulge in so many affairs, deceptions, misunderstandings and contrivances over one dinner in the Parisian countryside that the meagre space allotted here would not allow for spoilers.

Indeed as the piece nears its crescendo it becomes tricky to remember who is believed to have done what (or been what) to whom. And on opening night there was just a hint that one or two cast members felt the same.

But the relentless pacing, the well choreographed physical comedy, the lovable charm and presence of Damian Williams as Jacqueline’s portly lover Robert, and the cast’s immaculate comic timing keep the audience onside through any bewilderment.

Tracey Penn could bring a little more guile and charm to Bernard’s young Parisian mistress, and the denouement might be more satisfying with more foreshadowing, but from the moment the curtain goes up and the strains of Charles Trenet’s Boum! fade away this is fabulous farce from a genuinely funny cast. Formidable.