Heart-warming comedy in West London

The Ambassador's in the bin - in scene from 'One Was Nude and One Wore Tails'

At a time when the world is in desperate need to re-acquaint itself with the revolutionary teachings of the Gospel - and a liberal dose of good cheer at the same time - here's some Good News.

A hilarious early farce by the late Nobel Laureate Dario Fo is currently playing in West London.

One Was Nude And One Wore Tails (1958) resonates with Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Endgame in that it has two philosophising binmen and a nude philandering ambassador who has sought refuge in one of their dustbins.

Fo's 1969 masterpiece Mistero Buffo re-played Medieval mysteries to hilarious and subversive effect. While the po-faced and pious clerical establishment may not have been amused that was precisely the point. Fo always honoured the radical voices coming up from below who pricked pomposity's bubble and mocked hypocrisy.

In his early farce, we have a delightful ritual of reversal in which a naked patrician is both literally and metaphorically stripped of his dignity and a binman who dons evening wear is deferred to as a man of great standing. The last shall be first, indeed.

The piece ranges from nothingness to the absolute, to the Pope and to God. It is full of wit, brio, slapstick and a chase.

Fo lived long enough to see Pope Francis acceding to St Peter's Chair and he dedicated a mock-medieval play of St Francis of Assisi (known as God's jester after all) to the new pope whom he considered to be a kindred artist-disturber.

One was Nude is directed by the award-winning playwright and actor Justin Butcher and he is joined by three other talented performers - Stephen Guy Daltry, Rupert Mason and Léa Desjacques - in singing, dancing, playing instruments and acting not only in the Fo but also in three early vaudevilles by the great playwright Anton Chekhov. The ensemble performs with brio and a great sense of play in these domestic and melodramatic vignettes: The Bear, Swansong and The Evils of Tobacco. As with the Fo, it is fascinating to see blueprints of later genius in evidence. Chekhovian dashed hopes, melancholy, mythomania and amorous engagement are enacted with absurdity and charm.

This is a delightful, life-affirming evening - a real tonic.

The run continues at the Playground theatre, Latimer Road, Unit 8 Latimer Industrial Estate, London W10 6RQ, every day until 30th November.

See: www.theplaygroundtheatre.org.uk

Tel: 0208 960 0110