A programme note suggests that there is a definite touch of Channel 4's Big Brother in La Dispute (The Debate).

The point is not hard to grasp, since the play - by the French writer Pierre de Marivaux - focuses on four young people and their tentative exploration of each other's sexuality.

As they do this, they are watched not only by us - the audience - but by unseen 'controllers' with an interest in the outcome of the youngsters' investigations.

And to further underline the parallel, much of the action takes place in and around a pool (hot tubs had not been invented in 18th-century France). This ambitious production represents a welcome co-operation between The Theatre and the Regional Dramatic Centre in the Normandy town of Vire.

It has already been staged across the Channel in Vire's hugely bigger theatre. Introducing the production at the start of run on Chippy's tiny stage this week, the director Éric de Dadelsen said he had brought along a suitably Lilliputian cast this time. He was, of course, joking. The 10-strong team possesses everything that is required in terms of physical stature and, more important, acting ability. Some also demonstrate further skills as singers and musicians in interpreting Alonso Mendoza's specially-composed music.

The entertainment, as it proceeds, offers not only an abridged (one assumes) version of La Dispute but occasional excursions into William Shakespeare in passages that address similar themes to the play.

The first is delivered in French, with English surtitles, while scenes from the Bard are - as you might guess - in English.

Early in the proceedings comes the meeting between Miranda and Ferdinand from The Tempest, who are winningly portrayed by Richard Pepper and Julia Sandiford.

The wonder felt by the girl on seeing her first man (her father and Caliban apart) is perfectly reflected in what follows in Marivaux's play.

The focus is a debate between a royal couple (Assly Zandry and Richard Keightley) on unfaithfulness in love, and whether men or women are more at fault. The matter can be simply settled, the Prince declares, in close study of the first meeting in early adulthood between four young people, two of each sex, who have been brought up in complete isolation from each other and the outside world.

Why he has just the quartet to hand.

The meeting between Églé (Juliette Navis-Bardin) and Azor (Alexandre Zeff) proves a charming, comic delight, as their tentative touching develops into total commitment, only to go rather swiftly wrong.

The vain Églé's demand for time apart - what we'd now call "a bit of space" - leads to trouble when the space is occupied for her by Mesrin (Yann Burlot), Meanwhile, Mesrin's own new-found love Adine (Aude Sabin) seeks solace with Azor.

Big Brother? I think you see the point.

CHRIS GRAY