Barefoot in the Park

CHRISTOPHER SMITH

Sewell Barn, Norwich

Barefoot in the Park is a modern, American comedy, neat, well-honed, ingenious and always offering another joke before the audience has stopped laughing at the one it has just heard.

With June Gentle getting the costumes just right to bring out the differences between the characters, director Mal Lucas and designer Angela Rowe present Neil Simon's play at a brisk pace with the right amount of realism to add substance to the situations.

Played by Laura Landa-more, Corrie is a leggy teenager who can hardly keep her feet on the ground as a newly-wed.

Her flexibility comes across all the better because her husband (Jonathan Redding) is a bit more stable, as befits a lawyer who is quite as likely to loose his cases as his wife.

Liz Latimer, as Corrie's mother, adds a lot. At the opening she gives a virtuoso performance as she makes a show of gallantly trying to admire everything that puts her back up.

As Victor, David Ivins is the odd man out who finds his way in. In a cast of Americans, he brings an exotic accent, some unusual cuisine and an oddly alien manner.

And why Barefoot in the Park? That would be telling. But think of skiing with carnations between your teeth and you won't be too far off piste.