AS a vehicle for Ian Richardson, Pauline Macauley's The Creeper - this week's offering at Malvern - is spot on.

An eccentric millionaire, languishing about in smoking jackets and silk dressing gowns, the part of Edward Kimberly is a gift for this master of subtlety. In conversation you could listen to him for hours, and are happy to do so.

This play, which hasn't been resurrected since its original outing in 1960s London, is not one that's going to keep you riveted. It will, however, amuse and entertain and in such good company perhaps that's enough.

With slight homosexual connotations, Kimberly invites young men into his home by virtue of an ad printed in The Times. Elderly and rich, he is happy to pay for companionship having gone off female company when his mother abandoned home. Sex is now a "poor performance" which he prefers to explore in his head than for real.

The magnificent drawing room set, with creeper omnipresent stage right, is revealed with the arrival of nervous newcomer Maurice (Oliver Dimsdale).

The ousted Michel (played to camp perfection by Alan Cox) is propelled from his comfortable position without clothing or cash, leaving a trail of bitterness behind him.

The seemingly nave Maurice is quickly won over by his keeper, who courts dependence from his young protgs.

Act I Scene 3 and we are introduced to some of Maurice's stranger characteristics. In slumber he creates, then destroys, a mannequin from a balloon and string.

Witnessed by his new boss from the shadows, the atmosphere begins to turn...

Act II has it all, in the best sense of romping drama, with bodies flailing like flies and moments of genuine pathos. Safe to say, it all goes horribly wrong.

Julie Harries