ALAN Ayckbourn is undoubtedly a master observer. His knack for drawing out characters’ flaws, stretching them to their very limit for comedy value, pushes the envelope even today.

This was brought home to me in this revival of his acclaimed Confusions at the Theatre Royal.

As a drunken travelling salesman haplessly tried to get vaguely-amused perfume reps into bed, foisting his room key at them, I felt both uncomfortable and strangely fascinated by the cringe-worthy car wreck of a courtship. I wanted to look away, especially when he eventually half collapsed in a stupor on the chest of one of the poor souls – key still in hand.

This, in a nutshell, sums up Ayckbourn’s brilliance: his sharp eye for our foibles and biting dialogue combine to create hilarious yet unforgiving snippets of human nature. We want to laugh, we shudder, try to look away, applaud.

Confusions has been touted as his masterpiece. It certainly has influenced his later work, in no small part Roundelay which came to Bath last year. Split into vignettes, each interconnected even if in some tenuous way, Confusions offers a cross-section of society – from an isolated mother who treats the world around her as her own personal nursery, to her unfaithful travelling salesman husband, through a solicitous waiter to well-heeled diners and an utterly shambolic garden fete.

Characters’, and by extension our own, frailty (if the ending makes anything clear, it is that no-one can escape his vivisection of the human race) is laid bare as we switch between pure farce and drama as one situation after another unfolds.

The constant change in tone, and multitude of characters, make for great theatre but not an easy ride for the cast who slip into four of five roles as the play shifts unrelentingly from one scene to the next.

Skilfully embracing characters with both subtlety and comedic flair, never turning them into one-dimensional clowns, the cast tackle each contained scene with aplomb. Russell Dixon and Richard Stacey were especially brilliant and wacky in the garden fete scene.

Bonkers, spot on and a delight to watch, this is Ayckbourn at his very best.