Buy, beg, borrow, do whatever you have to do but do get a ticket to see this five-star, comedy before it arrives in the West End next week.

This is a laugh-a-minute show that will leave you weak at the knees.

In many ways the very shortness of the piece - just over one and a half hours including the interval - works in its favour. This is a show that is never tedious and I doubt whether anyone could take much more fun at one time.

The play, (the original is by French satirist Francis Verber), deals with a cynical and cruel bully Pierre Brochon, a wealthy publisher who gives weekly dinner parties at which he and his friends invite along an idiot for ritual humiliation.

On this particular evening Pierre has injured his back and stuck in his apartment alone with the current idiot, tax inspector and manic matchstick model-maker Francois Pignon.

The two are played by Nigel Havers and Ardal O'Hanlon respectively and indeed this show is really just them - and what an inspired pairing.

The cool but increasingly despairing Havers is beautifully matched by the manic idiot O'Hanlon, making his acting debut in the UK.

This could well be the beginning of a new comedy duo. Both have superb timing, both move and express themselves clearly. These are two men holding a show and making it theirs.

The play has been adapted by veteran playwright Ronald Harwood who won an Oscar last year for Roman Polanski's The Pianist. Here he produces a sparkling script where one joke follows another so quickly it seems a continual stream of great comedy.

The rest of the cast, which includes Carol Royle and Patsy Kensit, do their best but all are overshadowed. Indeed, the ladies are on stage for less than 15 minutes each, so you barely have time to assess just how good they are.

But there is one exception in Geoffrey Hittchings, who plays a more than eager tax inspector who has information which is vital to the plot. For just a moment he has to react to a piece of personal bad news. His face is a picture I will treasure for a long while.

See U Next Tuesday is definitely a must-see show. Call 01273 328488.