IN TERMS of physical comedy, brilliantly timed, this production cannot be faulted, but I overheard one playgoer remark, “It doesn’t quite grab you, does it?”

The Original Theatre Company and the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds’ touring production of Three Men in a Boat is adapted by director Craig Gilbert from Jerome K Jerome’s classic book.

Despite its title, this production is set in the spacious back room of The Elusive Pelican pub, in July 1898, when Victoria reigned and many people rarely ventured more than a few miles from home.

Jerome K Jerome (J in the play) devised the book as a written exploration of the Thames, on which the three chums, nattily clad in striped blazers, encountered life on and around the river during a leisurely fortnight afloat.

The well-furnished set epitomises the era, which is recalled also in musical numbers on piano and banjo.

Props are rearranged to suggest a boat, and at one point a tow rope connects with the audience, to haul the craft onward (with appropriate congratulatory applause).

Anna Westlake plays Nelly, the pub pianist whose classical reverie is interrupted by the ebullient arrival of the three jolly boatmen: Harris (Tom Hackney), J (David Partridge) and George (Michael Rouse).

Their dog, Montmorency is represented by a figurine that relies on human intervention with appropriate barks, growls and whines, as events demand.

Superb comic interplay included Monty’s encounter with a large,disdainful cat. We learn that ‘Montmorency represents a small part of every Englishman.’ The versatile, agile cast portray many roles as their voyage progresses on a river beset with catastrophes (a dead dog, a rat and a drowned woman).

At one point there is a music hall act, with top hat, cloak, wicker box to saw in half, and conjuror's female assistant (in drag).

There are zany sequences involving an unopened tin of pineapple (heralded with a calypso); a tale about hunting in the Highlands (complete with over-sized snowballs) and snatches of Gilbert & Sullivan. The sheer energy of the cast challenges your imagination.