If Sherlock Holmes's case The Red Headed League had been conceived by the writers of Father Ted and seized, in its final moments, by the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe, you may find a counterpart for Comeback.

You hear of interviewers employing "killer questions": name the current cabinet, is a Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit?, that sort of thing. But when you're asked to observe someone pulling stupid faces, then rank them in order of comic value, you should realise this isn't any ordinary job.

Having inexplicably answered correctly, confused everyman Peter (Peter Nichols) joins Wendy (Sherill Turner) and Carl (Sam Booth) in the absurd, yet rigorously-structured world of the BKC, a diminutive society devoted to the as yet unscheduled comeback of Bob Kingly. An ageing comedian once famous for his silly hats and "special run", Bob hasn't actually been seen for 20 years except by daughter and manager Karen (Helen Kennedy).

When Peter questions the usefulness of the society's work, however, he disturbs more than Karen's authority. In a nightmarish sequence, Wendy performs silly walks in manic overdrive, a stash of funny hats fly from a trapdoor, and the history of alternative comedy, from Monty Python to Smack The Pony, is recalled and regurgitated.

When it finally comes, Karen's long explanatory speech, with its intriguing reflections upon the nature of comedy and reality, is an inevitable anticlimax. The joy of this production is in the far-flung wit and eccentric detail with which the BKC is brought to life, not its hasty philosophical deconstruction.

Comeback,Off-Key Theatre Company, Chapel Studio Theatre, York St John College, ends tonight

Updated: 12:18 Friday, June 27, 2003