Period comedy revived by star performances of great London Assurance

Boucicault’s play is a comedy of manners in which the town is depicted as a place of "assurance" (both a kind of cocky confidence and a guaranteed return on investment), whereas the country permits "gentlemanly ease" and provides less predictable rewards.

Ludicrous man of mode Sir Harcourt Courtly is tempted away from London by the prospect of making an advantageous match. His intended is Grace, the teenage niece of boisterous Gloucestershire landlord Max Harkaway. Although Sir Harcourt finds Cotswold life bewilderingly uncouth, he takes a shine to the cigar-chomping and alarmingly named Lady Gay Spanker.

Meanwhile, his dissolute son Charles, who likes to present himself to his father as a paragon of rectitude, also heads to Harkaway’s rural seat. Calling himself Augustus Hamilton and accompanied by his slippery friend Richard Dazzle, he is soon smitten by Grace and matters rapidly grow complicated.

Though often rousingly funny and intriguing in its presentation of men as society’s dolts and women as altogether more knowing, Boucicault’s play is not a lost masterpiece. But, some iffy plotting aside, it works perfectly as a vehicle for Hytner’s superb cast.

Simon Russell Beale’s Sir Harcourt is the main attraction, a mixture of Napoleonic imperiousness and pop-eyed camp. Fiona Shaw’s Lady Gay is a gallery of equestrian eccentricities. They spar and flirt beguilingly.

There’s quality throughout, with Paul Ready and Michelle Terry striking as Charles and Grace, while Richard Briers delights in the smallish part of Lady Gay’s clunkingly doddery husband and there is a serene turn by Nick Sampson as Cool the valet.

Mark Thompson’s design is handsome: first the grand edifice of Sir Harcourt’s house in Belgravia, then a honey-hued country pile with a lovingly created interior. It’s typical of a production that revels in carefully aligned detail.

After a slightly uncertain opening, Hytner’s production is wickedly entertaining, skewering several kinds of pretentiousness. It’s magnificently silly, even including a remote-controlled rat the size of a pug. But it’s good-natured too and a few crafty interpolations add a zest of topicality.

Until 2 June. For more information, call 020 7452 3000

London Assurance
National Theatre: Olivier
South Bank, SE1 9PX