More twists than a pig’s tale in Kenilworth theatre’s ‘brilliant’ farce

WELL, what a tangled web we weave, eh? On Your Honour is a brilliant and comical farce in the finest British tradition with some impeccable timing and the usual range of misunderstandings, loss of trousers and unexpected visitations that we have come to expect.

Nick Wilmott QC (Alec Brown) fancies a dirty weekend in the honeymoon suite of the Harcourt Hotel in Birmingham with solicitor’s secretary Toni Taylor (Rebecca Gardner Tildesley).

He has chosen the ‘Clean up the Bar‘ weekend conference with just about everybody that he should be avoiding. There’s Hilary his wife (Jo Beckett), his wife’s sister Liz (Lynda Lewis) and their father, the Lord Chancellor, Sir Harry Lumsden-Clark (Graham Shurvington) and his long-suffering and eloquent PA Gerald (Alexander Mushore). Nick’s friend and colleague, suspected ‘Australian’ – code for gay - Hugo Barnes QC (Stuart Lawson) has the connecting room as the tangling becomes a Gordian Knot of historical, well hysterical, proportions.

It is a wonderful performance from Graham Shuvinton. There are more twists than a little piggy’s tail and a lovely understated performance from hotel room service Christian (Ben Williams) and a positively Shakespearean set of coincidences to round off the hilarity. This is faultless and very funny.

Jane Howard