IT is rare nowadays to see two plays based on dramatic artifice within the space of a couple of weeks. The Abbey has Michael West's lively adaptation of Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro, and here comes (alas, for one week only) Sir Peter Hall's company in Ranjit Bolt's equally lively adaptation of Moliere's School for Wives, with the added encumbrauce of the doggerel of rhyming couplets over which a determined cast largely succeeds in making it sound like dramatic sense.

This is the one about Aruolphe, the practised cuckolder determined not to be cuckolded himself, who decides to raise his young ward in ignorance of "real life" so that she may become his wife, so innocent that she cannot betray him through the wiles of the society in which he has lived. It is also the one about the triumph of innocence over guile. Young Agnes falls so in love with young Horace that none of the wiles of Aruolphe can prevent their commitment and his resultant downfall.

Henry McGee is the cynical moderator who knowingly urges Aruolphe towards moderation on the grounds that Agnes's innocence is no protection against his cuckolding. Peter Bowles is the agitated Amolphe who sees his plan fall through because both of the young lovers unwittingly become his confidantes in their innocence. He's not such a bad chap after all and ultimately suffers more than they can. Daniel Betts is the all upright Horace and Gillian Kearney provides the most glowingly captivating performance as Agnes, the ingenue extraordinaire. Truly, her wholesome attractiveness provides the dramatic glue which holds the whole artifice together.

Peter Hall's direction consistently never allows guile to seem more attractive than innocence, yet never undermines the artifice of the dramatic construction. John Gunter's design permits all kinds of confidences to be shared without questioning the possibility of anyone overhearing, and Joe Atkins's lighting is close to perfect. The sentiment is sound, the artifice acceptable and the evening great (and moral) fun.