HG Wells’s classic sci-fi novel, The Time Machine, is reimagined in a new stage adaptation at the Theatre Royal in Bath.

The fast-paced and wise-cracking retelling of the world-famous novel tours to the Theatre Royal Bath to Saturday, April 29.

Audiences should expect the most surprising and unforeseen consequences as the cast go on a rollercoaster journey through time to a world thousands of centuries into the future.

In The Time Machine, H G Wells propels readers into the year 802701 to a world riven by class conflict, as he comments on the increasing inequality and class divisions of his own era.

He projects society as comprising of two separate human species: the fair, childlike Eloi, and the savage, simian Morlocks, distant descendants of contemporary upper and lower classes respectively.

But instead of exploring these themes, Steven Canny and John Nicholson’s script draws on the 1895 novella to explore the logic and paradoxes of time travel.

The play is structured around the over-familiar concept of actors putting on a shambolic play within the play, bolstered by out-of-sync lines, over the top acting and innuendo.

Canny and Bristol-based Nicholson make H G Wells himself a time-traveller, and their script contains songs by Cher and topical jokes about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan.

Sadly, the production promises more than it delivers despite the efforts of actors Dave Hearn, Michael Dylan, Amy Revelle and Noah Marullo.

Hearn is a founder member of the award-winning Mischief Theatre Company, best known for The Play That Goes Wrong.

Here, he’s working with the award-winning Original Theatre Company, the team behind the hit comedy The Hound of the Baskervilles, making a return to Bath.

Although the four-strong cast do their best, the comedy runs out of steam after the interval. It all goes downhill as the production runs out of ideas.

In the second act, members of the audience are asked to provide a mobile phone to help save our heroes.

One audience member dons a monstrous Morlock outfit, while another is asked to paint a picture of a cast actor having a ‘romantic meal with yet another audience member.

It's just a shame that despite their undoubted acting skills, the script on this production has let them down as it loses momentum and meanders towards the end.

To book tickets call the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk