THEY don't write comedies like Breath Of Spring any more. Whether or not you think that's a good thing depends on your willingness to spend a couple of hours in the company of a group of eccentrics living in a world that probably never existed, and getting up to the most unlikely shenanigans.

If you're in the mood for such a frothy confection (and I suspect that in today's financial climate we can all do with some light-hearted relief), then this production will fill the bill nicely.

Central character is Dame Beatrice, who has living with her in her flat as paying guests a trio of senior but lively gentlefolk, Nan, Hattie and the Brigadier.

And there's Bea's maid Lily who, to express her gratitude to her benefactress for employing her after her criminal past, presents Bea with a fur cape.

Unfortunately, Lily has temporarily relapsed into her former nefarious ways – the fur is stolen from a neighbour.

Horrified, Bea, her friend Lady Alice and the PGs mount a campaign, militarily masterminded by the Brigadier, to return it to its rightful owner.

They are so successful that they see a whole new future beckoning them, with various charities benefiting.

In a comfortably homey setting, director Rebeckah Ash steers her well-matched cast through the plot's intricacies, deftly skimming over the thinner ice, and encouraging the players into creating fanciful figures where the ice will bear them.

Doreen Sutton combines gentility with understanding and practicality to make Bea the sort of person we might all wish we had in our lives.

The boisterous Nan, planning supremo the Brigadier and highly strung Hattie are well differentiated by, respectively, Helen Scott, Trevor Hampton and, in a surprisingly successful innovation that avoids camp, Kevin Romaine.

Debbie Temple is Bea's sparky friend Alice, and Hilary Walker plays the resourceful Lily.

Niall Clinton and George Sutton as the bemused police officers complete the cast.

Gentle, undemanding fun, the Tamaritans' Breath Of Spring is at Plymouth's Athenaeum Theatre, ending today.