AS you would expect from a play written by Alan Bennett, Habeas Corpus delivers many clever, humourous and memorable lines.

As you might also expect, it's not your usual, run of the mill farce. There is a dark, cynical undertone which doesn't always sit comfortably with the format, you want to relax and have a laugh but at times it makes uncomfortable viewing.

The pace picks up in the second half, and the action becomes more upbeat and enjoyable.

This is one of Bennett's earlier plays, written in 1973 and regarded as a classic, but now seems very dated. Fortunately, our attitudes to sex have become less repressed and a little more enlightened in the past 30 years.

James Fleet, as Dr Wicksteed, holds the whole thing together with the kind of bumbling but engaging performance which made his name in Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Vicar of Dibley. But the best lines come from Edward Bennett, as Canon Throbbing, and Joanna McCallum, as Lady Rumpers.

Slow-paced and hard work at times, with too many characters who are not easy to warm to, the play eventually delivers the positive message that life is short and you should never leave anything undone.

Habeas Corpus continues until tomorrow (August 26).

Nick Howells