OSCAR WILDE wrote some cracking comedies, but he didn't actually write this one.

Trevor Baxter has adapted it from Wilde's story of the same name. It centres on Lord Arthur Savile, scion of a well-heeled Victorian family. His forthcoming marriage to the delectable Sybil has been posted in the London Gazette.

But Podgers, a pseudo-palm reader, convinces Arthur that he will commit a murder. Rather than cause distress to his bride-to-be, Arthur resolves to get the unpleasant business out of the way before the marriage, and the wedding is postponed. But whom to murder? Various members of his family are targeted, but he proves incompetent at all his attempts. Eventually, however, Arthur achieves his goal.

Director Christopher Luscombe has devised the production as a Victorian soirée, with a colourful toy theatre proscenium, display cards to set each scene and backcloths to depict the various locations.

Sequences are linked by brief poetic monologues. A violinist and pianist play interludes and accompany especially melodramatic episodes, and characters frequently freeze into poses and tableaux. They also at times involve the musicians in the action but, charming though it is, somehow it doesn't quite hold together consistently.

Lee Mears, left, as Lord Arthur shows he's not simply an ephemeral singing celebrity, and adds gravitas to what can be an anodyne role. The part of Podgers hardly taxes Plymouth favourite Gary Wilmot, who manages to make bricks without straw in a fairly unrewarding part.

Derren Nesbitt is melodramatically over the top as incompetent anarchist Herr Winckelkopf. Two generations of beauty and elegance are portrayed by Kate O'Mara as Lady Windermere and Louisa Clein as the sorely tried Sybil, and Belinda Carroll plays Lady Clementina, an intended victim who inconveniently dies in her bed of natural causes. Another intended victim is the Dean of Chichester, played by David Ross, who alone inhabits and displays the perfect style the play requires.

It's polished, genteel, occasionally witty, but I've seen funnier and more rewarding adaptations.