In Mike Bartlett’s rambunctious, modern-day Restoration comedy, there are scripted instructions that “everything should be joyful and fun”. Under the direction of Rachel O’Riordan, Scandaltown is a springtime pantomime of sorts, in which the classic features of 17th and 18th-century restoration dramas are re-spun with knowing humour, smut, silliness and arch references to the hypocrisies of the state, although the political satire in itself isn’t sharp enough to sting.
There is much delight in the spoofing of its genre: the typically revealing names, from Matt Eton (Richard Goulding), a repressed Etonian and Tory politician, to the conspicuously marginal character, Freddie Peripheral (Luke Hornsby). The classic restoration drama traits are all entertainingly over-egged, from disguises and comic asides to period language (whence, thereof, t’was), and the obligatory showdown when secret paternities are revealed and grudges unburdened.
