It’s a new Dawn, it’s a new Day: The Recruiting Officer at the Donmar Warehouse

I have only known the Donmar Warehouse and its productions – can they do no wrong? – through the eyes of Michael Grandage. With a new artistic director, Josie Rourke, in charge, I went to the theatre with even greater curiosity than usual to see George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer: Rourke’s inaugural piece at the Donmar.

An absolute hoot of a Restoration Comedy, The Recruiting Officer is slightly homoerotic, bawdy British humour – how else would we English prudes bear to talk about sex, baby – brought to life by Rourke and the cast, with a subtlety that does not need to rely on slapstick.

Mark Gatiss is utterly spot-on as the camp and cringe-worthy Captain Brazen, a personal favourite. Mackenzie Crook, as Sergeant Kite, lays bare his massive talent as a performer as well as a comedian, rivalling anything that Johnny Depp has shown us from the quirky department. We shall be seeing him in decades to come.

Tobias Menzes is a perfect physical match for the raffish and self-assured, Captain Plume, and gives the character a pleasantness that stops one dismissing him for being a bit of a womaniser.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Crook’s Jerusalem colleague, plays the naïve but lusty Rose with hilarity that brings to mind the words “drunk baby”, in the most endearing possible way. Leading ladies Nancy Carroll, as Silvia, and Rachael Stirling, as Melinda, give strong and notable performances, too.

The comedy doesn’t abate for an instant throughout the whole two and a half hours or so, thanks to the incredible way the characters and the whole cast bounce off each other. Sergeant Kite, and his superior Captain Plume, of her Majesty’s army trying to seduce local yokels away from bucolic existence into servitude; Captain Plume and the object of his affection, strong-headed Silvia; Silvia, disguised as a “rake, and country-girl Rose; Captain Brazen and the affected Melinda; Sergeant Kite, incognito as the German Fortune-teller, conning all and sundry: never a second of dullness, yet never a manic or frenetic one either. I was reminded heavily of Shakespeare’s As You Like It: ribald ripostes and revelry, chicks in disguise and fleeing one’s father jurisisdiction amid a flurry of love matches.

One of the highlights of the production, if not the highlight, was the music. The musicians, otherwise supporting characters, played their instruments with passion and earned themselves two rounds of applause before the play proper had even begun.

Stuart Ward on guitar with the goose-bump-giving voice; Matthew Romain on violin; Peter Manchester on ukele, mandolin, double bass and guitar, who also played Rose’s dopey brother Bullock; Chris Grahamson on percussion and baritone ukele; Tom Giles on flute, who was just awesome as camp country bumpkin Costar. The troupe closed the production with an emotional rendition of the traditional song Over The Hills and Far Away.

The set design and lighting – supplemented with scores of candles – were sublime as always and the seats in the auditorium had also been reupholstered with embroidery in the beautiful style of the 18^th century.

I recently read one of the most original articles written vis-à-vis theatre (and, more specifically, theatre criticism). To paraphrase the astute Suresh Patel, he is interested in reading reviews in which the critic – that’s me – outlines who they are, what they believe in, how they’re feeling about life… and then describe how they feel after the show, whether the change be big, small or fleeting. What a wonderful way to look at a piece of theatre, a piece of art.

I went in feeling hot, slightly hung over and a little traumatised from navigating the Covent Garden piazza on a Saturday afternoon. An iced, sugary drink in hand and five minutes in I was feeling better. And two and a half hours later I had no hangover, only a reinforced love for theatre and the actors who make it possible.

The energy of the new era is evident and palpably different from before. Rourke has come in bringing her own signature and already set up a wonderful foundation on which to build. I look forward to the next instalment, but not before the fun of The Recruiting Officer is enjoyed my many more.