ANY resemblance to tonight's company is purely coincidental, says director John White with an exclamation mark.

Therein lies the joy of Alan Ayckbourn's ribbing of the dangerous, claustrophobic world of amateur dramatics, a world that should carry the warning Handle With Care.

Ayckbourn lifts the curtain on the off-stage antics, the dramas and traumas and sexual shenanigans that beset the Pendon Amateur Light Operatic Society's production of The Beggar's Opera, but it could be any amateur company, any town. The foibles and frictions, the political in-fighting and wheels within wheels are the same wherever the spotlights spark up.

The catalyst in A Chorus Of Disapproval is widower Guy Jones, a new recruit from Leeds who plays the innocent abroad, but believes: "There's a first time for everything."

Any resemblance to tonight's company is purely coincidental, as we know, but Paul "Ossie" Osborne is new to Settlement's ranks, although you may recall his humorous contributions to York comedy duo The Two Tones and Upfront Theatre Company.

Here, with eyes low and darting, lips nervous, he brings comic understatement to Guy, conveying the double edge of a man who can't say no to women, better roles in the production or business bribes.

Harassed director Dafydd ap Llewellyn (the ever engaging, wonderfully Welsh Alan Booty) must try to hold his hapless production together, while his own life falls apart.

His neglected wife Hannah (a Celia Johnson-style Beverley Chapman, one of the best additions to York's amateur scene in the past two years) seeks comfort in the arms of Guy.

Guy, however, is also a magnet to the swinging Hubbards, fruity Fay (the tactile Jessica Fisher in boots up to here) and her sleek husband Ian (Eusebio Machado, great name, good performance).

Mike Rogers's set is too squashed on occasion, but there is zip aplenty to John White's production, especially in the cat-fighting of Sharyn Gubbels's surly Bridget and Joy Thomas's volatile Linda, her rival for the affections of Mick Cutler's gum-chewing likely lad, Crispin.

John Parkes's ever distracted piano player, Mr Ames, Richard Easterbrook's righteous old boy, Jarvis Huntley-Pike, and Judith Ireland's breezy, high maintenance Rebecca all earn approval too.

Updated: 10:23 Thursday, March 10, 2005