WRITTEN and set in the 1920s, Noel Coward’s sparkling comedy is still relevant today.

Comfortably well-off, Julia and Jane are good friends. Reasonably happily married for five years, they share a secret past – they each enjoyed pre-marital relationships with sophisticated and attractive Frenchman Maurice... and now he’s coming to visit them.

While their husbands go off to play golf, Julia and Jane prepare for Maurice.

Feverishly excited and guilt-ridden, the two women get dressed up. Champagne is quaffed, oysters are lasciviously swallowed, dialogue gets louder, the farcical humour degenerating into the glorious physicality of slapstick comedy.

As always with Salisbury Playhouse, the stage set is meticulous, although more art deco detail would enrich the atmosphere.

Beneath Coward’s trademark froth and fizz, there’s a powerful mix of friendship, desire, frustration and guilt.

And at a time before women were allowed to vote, the 1920s themes of stale marriage, the exciting lure of sex, faithful commitment and longing need, still resonate today.

The two clownish husbands and the smooth French Lothario are thinly drawn, shallow and stereotypical. Conversely, Jackie Clune and Carolyn Backhouse as the feisty, manipulative and duplicitous wives relish the slapstick.

And as the piano playing, singing, all-knowing maid Saunders, Lucy Thackeray almost steals the show.

With its super seating, brilliant acoustics, and friendly staff, Salisbury Playhouse always seems to nail both edgy new dramas and classic revivals.

Fallen Angels runs until October 3, matinees Thursdays and Saturdays.

Brendan McCusker