The Miser has been worked over many times since it was first written.

This version, by New York writer Freyda Thomas, is billed as “archetypal farce” and Moliere comes over as knock-about comedy played much in the style of traditional British pantomime – straight at the audience with plenty to get them guffawing, French morality without the tears, you might say.

The most attractive things about Steven Adams’ production, dressed punk style, are its furious pace and the casting – the company’s strong point is having young actors who can put comedy across with confidence enough to have the audience trust them on sight.

The Miser himself is Des Potton, a large presence who fills the stage with misplaced outrage while family, staff and interlopers weave round him like mad moths.

Frank Leon is a superb chef (lovely joke with a pig) and Amanda Harman does an extraordinary double act in wonderful make-up.

Kitty Fox Davis and Nicholas Farr, and Chelsea Newton Mountney and Nik Balfe, manage to be charming as the lovers, hard-edged though their stories are.

An eccentric evening, well worth the energy needed to keep up with it.

Four stars