TOM Stoppard’s On the Razzle is a farce without doors, a fast-moving play in which the advances and retreats are verbal rather than physical.

And boy, do you have to concentrate to keep up! Luckily we were in good hands as the witty repartee flowed thick and fast – the Queen’s Hall Theatre Club romped through their latest production as sure footed as Red Rum in the Grand National.

For the Hexham group turns 30 this year and they know their stuff. Director Moya Holmes said they tended to choose comedies more often than not, because they draw the biggest audiences.

Disappointingly, though, their most recent performance wasn’t a sell-out and the play only had a three-night run, so perhaps those who think the group should change its name are right.

Too often it is overshadowed by the much bigger Hexham Amateur Stage Society and frequently overlooked by punters who get the impression it’s a bit of an ad hoc exercise tucked away in a back room.

Far from it. They are actually an accomplished society adept at providing a good night out at the theatre and, as On the Razzle demonstrated, good with silly wigs, plastic lobsters and bikes that double as horses.

Basically, the action revolved round upmarket grocer Herr Zangler (David Nixon), who had set his cap at Mme. Knorr (Hazel Harrison), the proprietor of a fashion boutique in Vienna. Predictably, while Zangler was away a wooing his assistant, Weinberl (Robin Jowett), and his apprentice, Christopher (Fergus Oliver), were mice a playing.

A trio brimming with talent, they carried the weight of the play with ease. Experienced and confident, Nixon and Jowett (who is professional in all but name as an actor, singer and musician) were the characters, and my money’s on Oliver as the bright young hope - we will hear a lot more about him in the future, I am absolutely sure.

It wasn’t always easy to catch what was said, but that had as much to do with the density of the text as the pace of delivery. Nixon had great fun as the word-mangling Zangler: “Fetch me a half-witted cab you Hansom fool”. And the chancer who wangled his way in to become his servant (James Gardner) had some corking lines: “Don’t have dinner with this man! He will alter you before dessert ... no, he will desert you before the altar.”

Ian Lockey, as the amorous coachman Bodelheimer, and Elizabeth Nixon, as the love-starved seamstress Phillipine, also turned in a couple of wonderful cameo performances too.

The Queen’s Hall Theatre Club will be back in the autumn. Watch out for them.

By Helen Compson