BLACK comedies just don't come any funnier than this polished gem from the pen of Eric Chappell, most famous for having written Rising Damp.

Roy Byrom is quite magnificent as Vincent, the man from Exodus, cheerfully bearing quick-action potions to bring dispatch to those with suicidal tendencies. Physically he is not unlike John Le Mesurier and has something of Sergeant Wilson's Dad's Army bungling about him.

Then again there is not a little of the Hancock about his self-seriousness, his absurd professional pride and in his outbursts of moral indignation.

One potential client for him is Jo White's delightfully bewildered Celia Bryce. Trouble is she's not prepared to go without taking her husband with her.

Stuart Davison is also outstanding as the hapless Walter, wanting to give his wife a gentle push, and jet off to sunny climes with his girlfriend, Angie, whose brittle glamour is perfectly captured by Debbie Barker.

Under Pauline Sykes's inventive direction, the ironies of the human condition are ruthlessly exposed in a way that is hilarious and unsettling. There are digs, too, at the class structure and the materialism of our age.

If you see only one play in what has been an outstanding season by the Thespians, make it this one. It runs until Saturday.