The Recruiting Officer, Donmar Warehouse - review

It is the first time that the Donmar has staged a Restoration comedy. Directing here with aplomb, Rourke has assembled an impressive cast that includes Mackenzie Crook as Sergeant Kite, the recruiting officer of the title, and Mark Gatiss as the aptly named Captain Brazen, flamboyant under a mass of chocolate curls.

It's a pacy and complicated piece, in which big themes (love and war) are presented amid a riot of bed-hopping, social blockades, meddling servants and enticing legacies. Restoration comedy is often associated with a brittle sort of humour.

Farquhar's writing has less glitter and more vitality. Although this is conveyed here in terms that will be too broad for some, the lack of restraint is mainly a source of pleasure.

When Kite and his superior Captain Plume (Tobias Menzies) arrive in Shrewsbury, they unleash amorous intrigue and bawdy mishaps, into which Brazen plunges exuberantly. Crook's roguish Kite is crucial to many of the most relishably daft moments: at one point he explains that it is fine to recruit a coal miner because he "has no visible means of livelihood, for he works underground".

Gatiss, meanwhile, is splendidly preposterous as Brazen. Rachael Stirling delights as the haughty Melinda, a coquettish local, and Nancy Carroll brings a silvery fluency to her androgynous cousin Silvia, who has to disguise herself as a young man to get her way. There's sharp work, too, from Nicholas Burns as Worthy, a hapless Shropshire gent. But the strongest performance comes from Menzies, relishing the ambiguous nature of Plume, who looks like a careless womaniser yet turns out to be something else.

The Donmar's playing space has been opened up invitingly and Lucy Osborne's design boasts a fairyland of candles. From the outset there's credibly rustic music composed by Michael Bruce - including a lovely tuneful reminder for patrons to turn off their mobile phones. The result
is a fresh, spirited account of a relentlessly busy play. The dominant notes are fizzy amusement and a festive sexiness. It's an extravagant opener for the new regime at the Donmar. On this evidence, I'm recruited.

Until April 14 (0844 871 7624, www.donmarwarehouse.com

The Recruiting Officer
Donmar Warehouse
Earlham Street, Seven Dials, WC2H 9LX