WITTY, sparkling, like the publicity says, yes, but there’s a whole lot more to William Somerset Maugham’s between-the-wars comedy of manners and the Chesil Theatre company brings it out in this impressive revival.

With its sparse, evocative art deco set, director Caroline Helcke’s production looks good and the acting is impeccable.

Led by the excellent Deborah Cranmer, as the mother of central character, Constance, the opening is all wit and irony, worthy of Oscar Wilde, but there’s an uneasiness in the repartee that suggests something darker is at work.

Out of old fashioned upper-class theatrical conventions emerges the Modern Woman.

John Middleton, a marvellous hangdog performance by Martin Humphrey, is caught out in an affair with his wife’s best friend.

He’s been very naughty, reproves his mother-in- law.

But, far from making a scene, the wife, Constance, who knew about it all along, rescues him from public humiliation.

Her revenge is to be far more subtle, sweet and complete. Katy Watkins gives an outstanding performance as Constance, a character who should be toasted as a feminist icon: a woman who rejects the stuffy marriage conventions of her time and opts for economic, and sexual, independence. It must have been uncomfortable stuff for the original 1920s audiences.

The couple’s superb final scene, in an always well-paced production, fairly crackles with the released energy of their soured relationship.

The support acting is never short of classy, with Charlotte Richfeld as Constance’s pushy sister, Martha; Hazel Round as her friend, Barbara; Sarah Gerty as the simpering mistress, Marie-Louise; Jason Collins as Mortimer, her easily-manipulated husband, and Steve Clark as Bernard, Constance’s old flame.

Even the housemaid, Doris (Deborah Edgington), has her moment of glory with a delightful musical interlude, dancing cheek-to-cheek with a feather duster.

Robin Brown