New theatre, old joke: it takes six men to do the work of one housewife, especially if one of them can’t see through his glasses and all of them are Irish.

Sean O’Casey’s hilarious play The End Of The Beginning is a marvellous choice to launch the Theatre Upstairs for the New Venture Theatre: a slapstick comedy of pure farce which seriously questions traditional gender roles.

Masculine stereotypes are undertaken with shocking brilliance by the Oliver Hardy of Des Potton, flexing biceps and breaking clocks, together with his Stan Laurel sidekick Carl Boardman who manages to fall over objects that aren’t there. Neither can wash dishes or fasten the cow.

The best joke is the anticipation of Janice Jones’s reaction, which, in a magnificent coup de theatre, is largely left to our imagination.

And although the Irish in general – and Sean O’Casey in particular – are wizards with words, a great deal of the action is almost silent mime unless you count 78 RPM shellacs and upset livestock.

Three actors, pitch-perfect in speaking and non-speaking roles, give the comedy the performance of its life, their only rivals being a clever set and breakable vintage props.