With a title like Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), you know you are not going to get a straight rendition of Jane Austen’s most famous masterpiece: in fact what you get is funnier and cleverer than you could possibly have imagined.

The play opens with the five actors as servants sweeping and dusting . . . because of course all these rich people need servants to run their large house and attend to their needs, don’t they? Then the actors burst into song and the play takes off from there, as you are treated to just over two hours of riotous acting and singing. But not before you have heard the famous first lines: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’

We all know the story, so you wonder how 5 women can portray all the important characters. Well, they do . . . . except Mr. Bennet, represented by the back of a chair and a newspaper, silent as ever in the onslaught of words coming from his hysterical wife. The actors play multiple roles – simple costume changes denote the difference. Darcy (Rhianna McGreevy) stalks off and a minute later you have Mrs. Bennet swooning on the couch – the stiff formal man becomes a garrulous, foul-mouthed woman in the flick of a dress.

The author of the play, Glaswegian Isobel Donkin, came to Austen later in life than many of us, at the age of 28. She was challenged to write a script for Glasgow: “If you can do Austen for Glasgow audiences, you can do anything.” She rose above what could have been an insult and recognised this story for what it is, a riot of comedy and satire (the original Romcom she calls it) but with some social commentary thrown in and perhaps some home truths about love, real love, so she has written a play in the tradition of the Glasgow music hall with singing and joking and talking to the audience.

All 5 actors have great singing voices: when Darcy’s behaviour is at its snobbiest worst, Elizabeth Bennet grabs a microphone (these appear miraculously from everywhere) and sings ‘You’re So Vain’ at him and, later, the rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ was so funny we were all in tears. There are so many priceless moments: when Darcy arrives at his ancestral home and sees Liz, the servants suggest he goes for a swim and comes back (remember Colin Firth and his lake swim before he meets Elizabeth). The servants in fact make quite a few suggestions to their (lords and) ladies at various times. And wait till you see Jane (Christine Steel) on horseback – oh my goodness!

The serious side is there. The 5 daughters' positions are precarious if they don’t get married; a woman in those days had no rights and very little control over her own destiny. It is also a time of war; most men are off fighting including some men who would have been household servants. But it is a light touch as it is in the book - mostly you come away wiping the tears of laughter from your eyes and wondering when you can go back to see it again.