THE Relapse may be 316 years old, but it doesn’t look or sound its age. In Madeleine Ayres’ highly-recommended production for Southend Shakespeare Company, this prince among Restoration comedies retains its humour and five-star entertainment rating, untarnished by the passage of centuries.

With its towering wigs, suggestive of hairy multistorey office blocks, and non-stop parade of sumptuous costumes, it is also a continually sensuous visual treat, turning the Dixon studio, normally more your jeans and anorak sort of venue, into a riot of colour and multiple textures.

The plots and subplots of the Relapse concern attempted and failed seductions, marital lapse, the pursuit of a wealthy heiress, and family duplicity. That, really, is all that needs to be said plotwise.

The narrative is for the most part an excuse to unleash a cavalcade of gleefully observed Restoration period personalities – the fop, the adventurer, the quack doctor, the country bumpkin, the saucy maid, the enfeebled parson, the embarrassing old nurse.

These may be stock stage characters now, but it was the Relapse’s author John Vanburgh who put most of them into the stock in the first place.

The key character, and the prime reason for the Relapse’s immortality, is Lord Foppington, the most famous fashionista in stage history. The poncing part is absolutely wonderfully played by James Carter, who deserves the Freedom of Southend for this performance alone.

The risk with this play is Lord Foppington will overshadow the rest of the performers, but no way does that apply here.

Amy Wilson is hilarious as the lusty, apparently-dim country heiress, whose conniving duplicity cheerfully embraces a spot of bigamy.

Ross Norman-Clarke is so effective as her blustery, rough-edged country father, the squire Sir Tunbelly Clumsy, that it’s hard to believe he’s not the real thing. Andrew Sugden turns in a memorable mixture of the humbug and the rake as Loveless, and Ian Downie had me in considerable pain (of the good sort) as the rampantly gay matchmaker Coupler, complete with livid yellow wig.

Roy Foster also does great comic work with his mercurially craggy features and repertoire of gaits, in two roles – the quack doctor and all-round health hazard Syringe, and the bent (in more ways than one) vicar Bull.

As these and other characters strut their stuff, you begin to recognise something unexpected about the Relapse – relevance.

All sorts of issues that arise, from women’s lib to the gulf between extreme wealth and poverty, and exploitation in all sorts of guises, come across with powerful familiarity. Warm and entertaining comic romp though it is, the Relapse turns out not to be so lightweight after all.

The Relapse, Palace Theatre (Dixon Studio), London Road, Westcliff. Nightly at 7.45pm until April 28, Saturday matinee 3pm, 01702 351135