One of the great delights of any play by Noel Coward is the general impeccability of the delivery of the language.

Sadly that was totally missing from the opening night of Rik Mayall's new vehicle, Present Laughter.

I put it down to first-night nerves (after all, the play is destined for London) but nerves tend to come right pretty quickly, not here.

Most members of the cast swallowed the ends of lines and gabbled the rest. This was not the language of the British theatre in the Thirties and certainly not Noel Coward.

But having lambasted the cast for that, let me offer some praise. The set was beautifully dressed as an ever-so-solid studio apartment in which Garry Essendine (Mayall), a darling of the theatre, lives.

It is in this apartment that life catches up with him and a pretty complicated life it is too. Current seducee, ex-wife, secretary, manservant, housekeeper and husbands and friends with whom he may or may not have slept with add to a slowly unravelling web of mistaken identities and lies.

It is funny and furious at times and in more practised hands would really sparkle. There are some splendid touches. If Mayall misses Coward's authority and drollery, as a matinee idol, he isn't too bad and may well go on to fully hit the mark.

The mature Mayall is extremely personable with a nice roguish but disarming smile and a sprinkling of grey at his temples making him look quite distinguished.

Gone are his past roles in The Young Ones and Bottom and there are beautiful snatches of Alan B'stard. He totally redeems himself in the last 15 minutes with a no-holds-barred piece of enthusiastic and exuberant over-acting which hits the spot.

Mayall does his best with Kim Thomson, who plays Joanna, wife of a friend and lover of another and wanting Garry all the while.

Thomson is an attractive, flame-haired temptress and she and Mayall fairly sizzle in their seduction scene. She also manages the language and diction well. There is good diction too from the ex-wife (Caroline Harker).

If director Dominic Dromgoole can only clamp down firmly on the language, he could well have a hit on his hands.

The revival needs to be run through a while longer. It has great potential to be something more and I, for one, wish it well.