Well may Sir Robert Chiltern pace up and down. Not only does a festering scandal threaten to ruin his brilliant political career, but also (owing to a muddled scene change on opening night) he’s not sure whether he is in his morning room or his library. The scandal involves dodgy dealings in a canal company, and an incriminating letter has been found by one Mrs Cheveley. Sir Robert may have a sharp political brain, but he doesn’t seem to sense trouble when it stares him in the face: while all the other ladies are dressed for dinner in demure cream, Mrs C, once very close to Sir Robert, arrives in a rather revealing, bright scarlet number. Short of carrying a placard with the word ‘blackmailer’written on it, it is difficult to see how the position could be made clearer.

In this Bill Kenwright production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband (director Mark Piper), Sir Robert (Michael Praed) doesn’t immediately rant and rave at his predicament. Instead he mutters piteously, and sometimes inaudibly. Maybe Mrs Cheveley (Kate O’Mara, just the job with her chiselled features and flashing eyes) didn’t hear the offer to buy her off.

Be that as it may, her poison spreads. The only person who seems unaware of what is going on is the doddery Earl of Caversham (Tony Britton). He is only interested in the conduct of his son, Lord Goring: “It’s time, Sir, that you got married,” is just one of his many, sometimes repetitive, instructions.

Repetition is a problem in An Ideal Husband. Compared with the same author’s The Importance of Being Earnest, it’s a wordy play, especially in the long first half.

This production was originally directed by Peter Hall, and I suspect that it went at a faster pace when he was in charge – the scene in which Lady Markby (Fenella Fielding, pictured, surely indulging in a send-up of Dame Edith Evans) bemoans the decline of London Society seems to go on for ever.

The high spot is the moment of first-rate farce that ensues when Lord Goring (splendidly smooth Robert Duncan, the performance of the evening) awaits a female visitor late at night. He is expecting the thoroughly decent Lady Chiltern (Carol Royle), come to seek advice on her husband’s predicament. Instead it’s Mrs Cheveley who turns up.

Nonetheless this is a timely revival. While the snobbish world of London Society, which Wilde debunks so thoroughly, has gone, the endless ability of politicians to mix with the wrong people is still very much a live issue. Will they never learn?

n An Ideal Husband continues at the Oxford Playhouse until Saturday. Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.oxfordplayhouse.com