★★★★☆ This one will no doubt be familiar to many theatre-goers . . . Private Lives is his esteemed comedy of manners concerning a pair of divorcees who happen to run into each other on their second honeymoons. The play is one of his most polished pieces in terms of its venomous repartee and acutely risqué wit.

★★★★☆ The main roles are played with aplomb by Molly McGuire and Ben Goffe (Dick and his sarcastic cat Tommy, respectively), though of the main story roles my favourite was Andrew Westfield’s King Rat. Panto villains provide a great opportunity for hamming it up and it is tremendous fun to see the actors having as much fun on stage as the audience is in the stalls.

★★★☆☆ Writer Ira Levine was of course known for writing his suspenseful stage stories but the sinister aspects here are played for camp rather than for horror. Each act and violent moment on stage is accompanied by a thunderous boom – which does a good job of making the audience jump from their seats but this is inevitably accompanied by cathartic laughter.