Bedroom Farce *** TNT

Three bedrooms, four couples – but despite the title, Alan Ayckbourn’s 1970’s comedy is hardly a raunchy game of musical beds.

In one neat, pink bedroom long-married Ernest and Delia are getting ready for a rare night out to celebrate their anniversary, but he’s more focussed on locating the source of the damp patch on the ceiling. On the other side of the stage, Tony Gardner’s Nick is stuck in bed with a bad back, barely able to move whilst his briskly unsympathetic wife, Sara Crowe’s Jan, (who just happens to be the ex-girlfriend of the first couple’s son, Trevor) is off to a housewarming party being held by the occupants of the middle room – love struck Malcolm and Kate who are still at that early romantic stage of laughing at each other’s practical jokes which are, almost certainly, destined to become intensely irritating in the not too distant future. Also invited to the party are self-obsessed Trevor and his wife Susannah, a neurotic flake with serious insecurity issues.

Substantially recast since it opened at the Rose in Kingston, Peter Hall’s competent revival is all very innocent – with Susannah and Trevor turning up post-party to invade bedrooms where they have no right to be, disrupting the lives and the sleep of the their reluctant hosts. As ever, Ayckbourn reveals a sure touch in exposing the foibles of human nature as well as the progressive stages of middleclass marriages.

The characters may be exaggerated but there’s something eminently recognisable in each of them. And although time hasn’t been particularly kind to this rather contrived comedy, there’s still wry amusement to be had from Jenny Seagrove and David Horovitch, all passion long spent, settling down to savour the questionable delights of shared pilchards on toast in the matrimonial bed.

Duke of York’s, St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4BG (0844 871 7623) until 10th July (£20.00 -£60.00)