Popular Oxford Company Troika returned to the OFT with a stylish production of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime.

Loosely (and I mean loosely) adapted in the 1960s by Constance Cox from the 1891 short story by Oscar Wilde, this black comedy of manners bristles with wit — but also has a copious amount of silliness. The wit is courtesy of Wilde and the silliness is from Cox’s extensive refiguring of the original plot. But against the odds the Troika production team and director Rachael Johnson have succeeded in making a very watchable show out of this eccentric piece — as the cast pres-ent the essentially two-dimension-al characters with aplomb.

Happily contemplating his upcoming nuptials, Lord Arthur Savile is subjected by his overbearing future mother-in-law to inspection by society ‘chiromancer’ Mr Podgers. After giving the suspicious Lady Merton (a splendidly malevolent performance by Emma Way) a fault-free reading of the prospec-tive bridegroom’s character, the dodgy palmist/blackmailer secretly informs the young man that the palm has actually revealed that he will commit a murder in the future. Anxious for this not to impinge on his married life, Lord Arthur decides to bump someone off immediately.

Playing the role with the lightest of touches, Nathan Peter Grassi gives the homicidal hero an unexpected warmth and charm. His inept attempts to kill off a family member while keep-ing his wedding plans on track keeps the implausible story bumbling along well enough, but the excitement of the play increa-ses dramatically when he enlists the help of uber-anarchist Herr Winklekopf, due to a deliciously over-the-top exposition by Bob Booth as the mad bomber that had the audience in stitches.

With strong performances from Polly Mountain as Lady Clement-ina and Ida Berglow Perrson as Lady Windermere bringing out the Wildean golden nuggets, ‘Sav-ile’s Crime’ was an entertaining evening of hare-brained fun.