The School for Scandal, theatre review: Richard Sheridan's satire still presses buttons

Andrew Hilton’s production bears its topicality well in the age of social media

In an age where reputations are won and lost at the click of an iPhone, Richard Sheridan’s The School for Scandal is a canny choice for a revival at the Tobacco Factory.

That said, had it not been for a newly added prologue and epilogue, in which Sheridan’s simpering poet Sir Benjamin Backbite (played with smug glee by Byron Mondahl) prances around the stage snapping selfies and pretending to defame audience members on Twitter, the point might have been lost. This is otherwise a production faithful to the 18th-century text.

After such an energetic start, Sheridan’s acidic satire on society gossip-mongering languished through the first half, despite a wonderfully gaspy performance from Fiona Sheehan as inveterate gossip Mrs Candour. But the second half was up to pantomime-worthy pace. Neat devices such as the audience standing in for ancestral portraits and a nice moment involving a stocking used as a neckerchief to cover up some hanky-panky earned well-deserved chortles.

As we look forward to an election fuelled by social media, Andrew Hilton’s production bears its topicality well.

To 9 May (0117 902 0344)