Vice Versa, The Swan, Stafford - review with pictures

How wrong I was.

Yes, Vice Versa lives up to its genre - riddled with puns, awash with innuendo and full of extravagant gestures and improbable situations. In my experience, it's a tough gig for the audience. But not here.

Phil Porter's masterful script and fully three-dimensional characters more than carry the wacky exaggeration and general absurdity of the action.

The story is outlined for us by the hugely engaging Sophia Nomvete as Dexter, the canny slave of General Braggadocio, a narcissistic buffoon who treats his women as badly as his servants. Remind you of anyone?

"I'm going to reinforce the city walls and make Rome great again," he declares, for those who didn't make the connection.

Dexter has hatched a plan of escape for herself, her former mistress Voluptua, who has been kidnapped by Braggadocio, and Voluptua's dim-witted lover Valentin, involving a thinly-veiled disguise, a very bad Greek accent and the help of hapless fellow servants.

Among them are the gloriously bumbling Byron Mondahl as Omnivorous and Steven Kynman as Feclus, neither as daft as they first appear, whose drunken antics steal the second half of the show.

Felix Hayes, quite brilliant as the florid-faced General, plays the part with camp aplomb without ever resorting to Kenneth Williams-style clowning.

The staging is simple - the street outside two Roman villas - with the main spotlight falling on the costumes and props, from General Braggadocio's Superman socks to his motorbility scooter 'chariot'.

Elaborate insults litter the two-hour play, which also features some strong musical numbers. It has been likened to an updated Up Pompeii but there is so much more to this joyous production than a string of Carry On capers.

It was written as an homage to the Roman comic playwright Plautus. This would have left him laughing all the way back to the forum.

Runs until September 9.