REVIEW: Harvey – at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Tuesday, February 24 to Saturday, February 28, 2015.

HARVEY is a gentle and delightful comedy. It’s relatively simple yet, at the same time, an exceptional play in the thought-provoking way it steadily persuades its audience to consider the way we live our lives and to believe.

After all, here we have the considerably wealthy Elwood P Dowd and his constant companion – a 6ft 3½in tall white rabbit visible initially only to Elwood. And who wouldn’t want to have a friendly companion such as this who reaches in to the inner soul and calls for you to slow down and dream a bit.

Maybe there is a darker side to Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play with Elwood, splendidly and enjoyably played by James Dreyfus, drawn to the demon drink, while the use of unsavoury methods at a psychiatric sanatorium is also alluded to.

The comedy centres around Elwood’s sister, Veta Simmons (Maureen Lipman), attempting to have him sectioned so that she and daughter Myrtle Mae (Ingrid Oliver) can sell-off his home, resume their social life and find a man for Myrtle Mae!

However, confusion ensues as the wrong person is sectioned and there are several amusing chases. Overall there’s great chemistry among the cast – especially some of the relationships between the characters.

A beaming Dreyfus and Lipman led the way in their respective roles, but there was considerable merit too in the pursuit of Myrtle Mae by muscle-man Duane Wilson (Youssef Kerkour) and Sally Scott’s Nurse Ruth Kelly in getting to grips with Jack Hawkins’ over-efficient doctor, Lyman Sanderson.

There’s also a fine comic portrayal from David Bamber as the slightly bumbling clinic chief, Dr Chumley, who also reveals that maybe, just maybe, all of us at times would like to escape from reality.

Although director Lindsay Posner maintains the play’s American setting, it would probably still work well switched to Norwich or Northampton, and it does have a top notch rotating set which affords effortless precision from Elwood’s sumptuous library, to a smart sanatorium and Charlie’s downtown bar.

Sat next to one of the few empty seats on opening night it did get the occasional glance just to make sure Harvey wasn’t there. But he wasn’t – he was on stage with the rest of the top notch cast taking his final bow and acknowledging all the generous applause.

It’s that sort of play. Infectious escapism and great fun.