Review: A Fistful of Collars

It's set in a Wavertree dry cleaners, but we're not here for some low-key, Victoria Wood-style working class truisms. We're here for larger than life, full-on, proper, arsing about. So Fistful of Collars bursts into life, for two hours of madcap Scouse comedy.

There's gangsters, kidnappings, extortions and plots ahoy, not missing a trick to cram Wayne and Coleen and Ladies' Day at Aintree into the plotline - and even a baddie called Curtis. Writer Fred Lawless has clearly stayed close to home for inspiration this time.

The dry cleaners is facing closure due to rent hikes, so the loveable team behind it decide to diversify and rent out the designer dresses that come in for a little extra income. But it's going to lead to trouble - some really silly trouble...

I liked the interplay between Pauline Daniels and Eithne Brown as sisters and shop owners Eileen and Pat - one hard-faced, the other a soft touch - both really well-rounded, interesting, and very believable characters. But I was expecting a little more sparkle from them both, perhaps their oh-so-slightly understated performances were lost in the wackier surroundings.

And wackier it got. Suzanne Collins' lingerie-clad Sally bought to mind 'Allo 'Allo style farce (as well as the impetus to get down to the gym), and Lenny Wood's clowning is always a massive crowd pleaser. Alan Stocks as the policeman put in another great scene-stealing comic performance, but wasn't Russ Abbott doing that old Brooke Bond joke decades ago?!

Fred Lawless is one of my favourite Liverpool writers, and his plays Slappers and Slapheads and Merry Ding Dong had tonnes of Scouse charm without being insular, isolated pieces. And although there's still big laughs to be had in Fistful of Collars, there was something about it that lacked that brevity, and played to the home town gallery in a big way, cramming in cliches that I don't think would wash anywhere else. It's a tried and tested formula, no doubt, and this play is bound to hit the spot with parties making a real night of it.

Lindzi Germain, as ever, had me laughing out loud with almost every line, elevating some very obvious jokes with her excellent delivery. It's another top ensemble cast for the Royal Court and when the farce works - when all the strands of madness come together -it's a pretty rewarding piece. Fistful of Collars is a ridiculous night out - in the best possible way, of course.

It runs at the Royal Court throughout the Comedy Festival until May 15.