FOUR STARS

By the interval in Marcia Kash and Doug Hughes’s fitfully funny 1992 comedy Who’s Under Where? — about two women trying to pull off a coup involving their underwear business — I had a pretty clear idea of how things were going to pan out.

Two of the three hunky male models lined up by Jane Prichard (Janine Leigh) and Sybil Brunt (Susie Emmett) have had the ‘gig’ cancelled by their jealous husbands Paul (Mark Curry) and George (Steven Pinder) who suspected the boys were required to supply services of an entirely different kind.

The third, strappingly muscled Sebastian (Dale Monie), mistakenly assumes that the two men intend him to be part of a three-way gay orgy — and flees the hotel suite clad only in black briefs decorated with the ears and tail of a white bunny (don’t ask, don’t ask!).

So it seemed obvious over those interval drinks that to Paul and George would fall the task of parading the array of revealing male underpantings for the appraising eye of Italian fashion big-wig Signor Fruferelli (Patrick Monckton on deliciously over-the-top form).

Instead — spoiler alert for those planning to see the show — the two men get to model some of the female fashions. And very successful they are at it, Paul especially. He stirs the excitement not only of Fruferelli but also of the fierce hotel security officer Rodger Hodge (Eric Carte) from whose custody he and George had earlier escaped.

All this probably says enough to convince the reader that here is zany comedy of the sort guaranteed to delight the Mill at Sonning’s regular audience. They expect nothing too intellectually strenuous after their delicious dinner (lunch in the case of my matinee visit) — as is well understood by the theatre’s artistic director Sally Hughes, who is in charge of this well-acted production.

There are others, such as I, who will perhaps find the whole thing a little trying, not least for its contrived and far-fetched plot.

We are those who think the words ‘sex’ and ‘comedy’ all very well in their way (as, indeed, are the activities they define) but perhaps not wisely conjoined as a form of entertainment.

 

Mill at Sonning
 Until September 28
Tickets: 0118 969 8000