In these days of market-led entertainment, there will be those who say that Ronald Harwood's new play is a deliberate attempt to catch the wrinkly audience. It is fairly obvious that the elderly will be drawn by this story of four old codgers in a home for retired opera singers. But there is much to enjoy for audiences of all ages. The fears and ailments that afflict the elderly will come to us all, not least the dread of death and the fact that even this can, to an extent, be overcome through a cheerful heart. Harwood’s quartet are linked because all four, many years before, were teamed in a memorable recording of Rigoletto, now re-released on CD. The proposal is that they should perform the famous Quartet in a concert at the home to celebrate Verdi's birthday. Three of them set to work with a will - priapic Wilf, nursing lustful longings for muddled Cissie, and prissy Reg. The dissenter is the latest arrival, the younger Jean, whose first of four husbands was Reg, and who is resentful that she should be forced into a charitable institution.

Neatly directed by Christopher Morahan, the play is constructed with an immaculacy that will delight those who remember the theatre as it used to be, the amiable bickering and reminiscing of Wilf, Cissie and Reg giving way to an attack on the neurotic Jean, forced to give the reason why she suddenly retired after the birth of her first child. The ending may be sentimental, but it forms a satisfying conclusion to a play that knows what it wants to say. The acting, by four of our most distinguished older players, matches it precisely, with Donald Sinden in particularly good form as extrovert Wilf, appalled and delighted that he thinks of little except sex all day. A1ec McCowen Is superb as Reg, kindly, gentle, precise and obviously troubled at the sudden arrival of Jean, whose collapse of confidence is beautifully conveyed by Angela Thorne. Stephanie Cole, while probably having the least to say, nevertheless makes an indelible impression as dotty old Cisssie.