'How could you get pregnant without consulting me?" wails Aurora. "What man would want a grandmother?" Aurora has spent much time trying to micro-manage her daughter Emma's life. Needless to say, Emma's choice of husband met with almost automatic disapproval: "Thomas is limited - and his manners are atrocious". Then there's the matter of Emma's appearance. "The selection of a tasteful wardrobe is a duty, not a pastime", her mother informs her.

Famous as an Oscar-winning film starring Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, adapter Dan Gordon has stripped several cinematic subplots from this stage version of Terms of Endearment, to bring it closer to Larry McMurtry's original novel. Gordon has not, however, removed the opportunity for the two lead actors to indulge themselves, and revel in some choice over-the-top acting.

Enter Linda Gray, for long the increasingly drink-sodden Sue Ellen in the classic American soap Dallas. With her expressive eyes and immaculately gleaming teeth much in evidence, Gray may not be an actor of great range, but she fits the bill admirably as the immensely self-centred Aurora. Her husband having departed to his grave some years since, Aurora sets out to conquer her neighbour Garrett. Flashing those famous teeth she informs him: "I've kept a sunny disposition." It's not long before Garrett discovers that she has kept her figure too: it is barely disguised beneath a diaphanous nightgown as he is ushered into her bedroom "to see my Renoir".

Garrett is a rapidly going to seed former astronaut, one of the first men to set foot on the Moon. Now given to producing pelvic thrusts that would get him laughed out of any Elvis convention, he doesn't take too much persuading to go and see that Renoir. But he is as slippery as an eel once Aurora starts looking for some more permanent form of commitment. All of which provides John Bowe with an eagerly seized opportunity to ham it up.

At the interval Terms of Endearment leaves you feeling that you have been watching an inconsequential sitcom. But in the second half the mood changes completely. Aurora's daughter Emma (Suranne Jones, in an excellent performance) is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and it becomes clear that mother and daughter have never really communicated with each other, even though they spoke on the phone every day. Even the superficial Garrett comes up trumps as he sorts out an extraordinarily rude and uncaring hospital consultant (Robert Fitch). Indeed this is comedy with a sting in its tail.

Terms of Endearment continues at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, tonight and tomorrow. Box office: 01242 572573 or online at www.everymantheatre.org.uk