Review: Three Men in a Boat - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Tuesday, September 23 to Saturday, September 27, 2014.

THERE’S no lacking in energy and inventiveness in this invigorating adaptation of Jerome K Jerome’s original fun-packed work.

You couldn’t afford to blink or let the mind wonder for a second as this frantic and often frivolous offering took us up the River Thames on a tidal wave of slapstick comedy! It’s more than a hint of old tyme music hall.

Jerome’s book - a great comic novel of its time – was initially intended as a guide to the history and geography of the Thames but not once in this version does anyone come near to getting their feet wet.

That’s because writer-director Craig Gilbert has splendidly taken the trio’s outlandish adventures off the water and into the snug of a pub where they act out their boating escapades for the assembled members of the Royal Geographical Society after hijacking a pianist’s performance and her services.

Anna Westlake’s Nelly is the perfect foil to their oddball behaviour as they recount and play the host of eccentrics encountered on their epic journey.

Our ‘three men’ - Alastair Whatley, the founder of the Original Theatre Company, as J, and his two companions, Harris (Tom Hackney) and George (Paul Westwood) are totally engaging and entertaining with their physical story-telling routines in which they make the most of Victoria Spearing’s solidly successful set that is so evocative of those far off Edwardian days.

Gilbert has mixed in a good number of topical gags about the recent bank scandals, the referendum in Scotland and a humorous play on words such as one mentioning of the band U2.

It’s a high octane output which really rocks the boat. Not quite what Jerome may have set out to achieve but even he would surely have admired what was on offer and been amused.