Confusions,

Farnworth Little Theatre.

Runs until Saturday. THE problem with much of Alan Ayckbourn's work is that he can be tellingly brutal in his portrayal of the English middle-class.

As a result, much of his comedy can be quite depressing. Happily, Confusions does not fall into this category.

It's mostly a succession of extremely funny sketches and the Farnworth Little Theatre company have managed to milk as many laughs as possible out of one of Ayckbourn's lighter works.

In the opening sequence "Mother Figure" Helen Price as Lucy, Elaine Tyler (Rosemary) and Gary Murphy (Terry) set a high standard for the rest of the cast to live up to.

What I thought was particularly exceptional was their comic timing.

This is very evident in the scene "Between Mouthfuls" in which John Price, Kath Booth, Rick Sykes and Karen Kennedy, play two couples, in a restaurant. One husband, the boss of the other husband, has been secretly away on holiday with his underling's wife. John Howarth plays his part as the waiter excellently, while the others display professional standard character acting.

I sense that the players had the most fun doing "Gosforth's Fete" in which we see Ayckbourn's ability to manipulate his characters in a traditional sit-com type farce.

Once again Kath Booth plays the uppercrust Mrs Pearce superbly, and Andy Withers does a fine job as Stewart the drunken scout leader.

Back stage, this can't have been an easy play to put on - there are some very demanding, but slick, scene changes. The direction (although Farnworth Little Theatre call the director a producer) by Dave Eyre was also pretty flawless, and perhaps much of the credit for the timing is down to him. NICK JACKSON

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