An Ideal Husband @ Royal Exchange, Manchester

7:55pm Tuesday 18th December 2007

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OF course we'll never know, but I often wonder what Oscar Wilde would have made of today's sound bite obsessed politicians or tin pot celebrities.

I could imagine him on Have I Got News For You, launching verbal broadsides at the establishment and exchanging pricelessly witty remarks with Paul Merton and Ian Hislop.

If we ever needed an Oscar Wilde among us it is now, in a society which has, in many ways, got its priorities all wrong.

But luckily, we have his plays and for those of you in need of a New Year pick me up, i.e. the credit card bill is giving you sleepless nights, there's his sparkling comedy An Ideal Husband to enjoy.

Every so often you go to the theatre and the production you see is so good you become totally engrossed in what's happening on stage. The play's the thing, the only thing that matters.

The piece is currently playing at the Royal Exchange and theatregoers can enjoy exquisitely funny and insightful lines and some of the best performances you'll see in Manchester for a very long time.

Not a line of Wilde's wonderful script is wasted under the direction of Braham Murray, who has created a production that seduces both the eye and the ear.

And please, please, please don't think this is a highbrow play - Wilde may have had a gargantuan intellect but everyone can enjoy this masterpiece of a play.

The plot revolves around Sir Robert Chiltern and the attempt by the scheming Mrs Cheveley to blackmail the young MP. Chiltern's wife Lady Gertrude idolises her husband and is nearly destroyed when she discovers the man she married isn't whiter than white.

With her silky knickers well and truly in a twist, she runs to Robert's lifelong friend Lord Arthur Goring for help.

Can she save her significant other, before the horrible Mrs Cheeveley puts the knife in?

Performances from the entire cast are flawlessly brilliant, but I was particularly impressed by Simon Robson as Sir Robert, the charmingly charismatic Milo Twomey as the lovable layabout Goring and Joanna Riding as the villain of the piece, Mrs Cheveley.

Unmissable comedy - but comedy with a heart too.

• Until January 26. Tickets are available from 0161 833 9833.