Company at the Hamilton Princess.

*** A boisterous bedroom farce, first seen in Jabulani's winter season, forms one of a trio of after-dinner entertainments now being offered throughout the summer at the Hamilton Princess.

For sheer madcap mayhem of the bed-hopping innuendo-variety, `Move Over Mrs.

Markham' is hard to beat: its authors have been packing London audiences in with this and similar comedies for years -- and there is no sign at all that this recipe for success is likely to change in the near future. If the cleverly crafted plots, in their use of mistaken identities, double entendres and stereotyped caricatural characters, are daft enough to invite disbelief, it doesn't really matter: the scripts are always scrupulously literate, almost always wondrously witty and, so long as the cast is up to this extremely challenging form of theatre, even the most jaded theatre-goer will soon be laughing non-stop.

Thankfully (after a few hiccups at the opening of last season) this is now certainly true of this production which, after a deceptively slow start, quickly gathers speed and provides an evening of dazzling fun.

The action centres around Mr. and Mrs. Markham who are separately prevailed upon to lend their London flat to their friends and publishing partners, the Lodges, who are each intent on a secret amorous rendezvous. Predictably, both choose the same evening, which sets the Markhams at hilarious odds: add a shapely au pair who also plans to use the flat in her seduction of the Markham's interior decorator, and the stage is literally set for some marvellous buffoonery. This reaches a crescendo with the unexpected arrival of Olive Harriet Smythe, the strait-laced spinster author of the `Bow-Wow' children's books who also chooses this particular evening to call on Mr.

Markham to discuss a publishing contract.

With a vastly improved set by Richard Klesnicks and Kendra Ezekiel and some cast changes, this production has now settled down into a near-professional routine: the benefits of a long run, which allows the cast to fine-tune their performances are obvious.

Still taking on the title roles are real-life husband and wife team, Carol and Ian Burch, both seasoned actors whose onstage, essentially staid characters ably provide the comedic underpinning of the play.

Also repeating her success as the spinster is Annette Hallett who continues to turn in a brilliantly comic performance. The second act really belongs to her, from the moment she strides across the room, fuschia suit topped off by pillbox hat, leather gloves, brooch and brogues, to bestow, admittedly rather late in the now frenetic proceedings, a waspish dose of moral rectitude.

There is a wonderful performance, too, from Helen Coffey, a relative beginner in the acting world who nevertheless shines ever more brightly with every role she plays (and these have been quite a few since she arrived in Bermuda three years ago). As Linda Lodge, the would-be adultress, she is positively gleeful, a natural and glamorous comedienne who, in this production, reveals yet another facet to her already impressive acting armory.

Her husband is again played by Thomas Saunders, who skilfully captures that air of world-weary langour, essential to his role as the inveterate philanderer.

Perhaps the weakest aspect of the Chapman-Cooney plot was to make Alistair Spenlow, the interior decorator, so obviously effeminate: his infatuation with the au pair seems rather at odds for someone who spends most of his time mincing and swooning so extravagantly about the place. Still, stereotyping is part of the recipe for successful farce, and a homosexual character is usually to be found, hovering around to add even more visual and verbal merriment to the proceedings.

The gifted Keith Madeiros plays this role to the hilt in a glorious display of outrageous body language to match what are often the funniest lines in the play. He provides another comic twist to the already muddled arsenal of sexual peccadillos, when he is led to believe (mistakenly) that the two husbands are also embroiled in an affair.

Completing the cast in smaller roles are Lisa Young as the au pair , who recently drew praise for her performance as the lead female in Stage One Productions' `A Buffalo Jumps the Moon'. Dawn Robinson is the desirable and scantily-clad Miss Wilkinson and, finally, Del Tucker who, intent on his seduction of Mrs. Lodge, evokes a suitable air of bemusement as he sweeps, not into the expected love-nest, but what has now degenerated into a scene of sexual bedlam.

`Move Over Mrs. Markham' is one of Jabulani's best productions yet, and guaranteed to keep audiences laughing all summer.

PATRICIA CALNAN `Move Over Mrs. Markham' will next be performed on August 14-17, `Don't Dress for Dinner' will be presented next week, July 24-27, and `Relatively Speaking' on July 31-August 3.

THEATRE REVIEW REV