BRITISH society would have been fully primed to accept this sexually-charged comedy of misunderstandings when it took the theatre world by storm in 1967.

The timing was perfect. It was the fabled summer of love year, so the opening scene involving a naked man lying in a single bed while a young woman’s voice can be heard calling from the bathroom would not have been all that shocking.

Many people forget or are either unaware of just how revolutionary was the change in attitudes back then. And although Alan Ayckbourn’s masterpiece is very much a slow-burn affair, it taps into the times with unerring accuracy.

And when the four protagonists finally get into their stride, this is still the comedic rollercoaster of mirth and muddle that it was when first staged nearly half a century ago.

Robert Powell is superb as the philandering Philip. He ducks and dives with breathtaking agility after cottoning on to the fact that his cheating game may soon be up.

His character squirms his way out of one awkward spot after another while Greg (Antony Eden) storms blissfully on, a glorious stew of naivety and ego that exposes his lack of worldliness.

In stark contrast is the girl of his dreams – or perhaps nightmares - the thoroughly modern Ginny (Lindsey Campbell) who quite obviously wears the bell-bottomed trousers in this particular relationship.

But as the various exchanges breeze back and forth like the drifting smoke of some suburban garden fire, it is only the deceptively astute Sheila (Liza Goddard) who apparently holds the trump card… and one she plays with seismic effect.

Relatively Speaking is at Malvern Theatres until Saturday (October 29).

John Phillpott