Arts Centre - Studio 12, 14, 16 Jul, 8:15pm-9:15pm; 13, 15 Jul, 7:00pm-8:00pm Reviewed by Richard Stamp

When the customary pre-show safety briefing includes instructions for the event of a nuclear apocalypse, you know you're in for an unconventional ride.  Based heavily on The Importance Of Being Earnest - but with time travel thrown in - this new play from award-winning Three's Company bursts right through the fourth wall, making the theatre itself a part of the stage and the audience a part of the cast.  It's fun, it's clever and it's quintessentially Fringe.

The programme bills the script as being "by Tom Crawshaw and Oscar Wilde", and it isn't being conceited; for the first fifteen minutes or so, they really do perform Wilde's famous play.  But it isn't Earnest who's truly important here; it's all about his great-grandson, Frank, who's roaming outside in 2011 Buxton.  We learn this from an enigmatic silver-suited woman in the front row, who starts by commentating from the sidelines but, later, very much plans to get involved.

And she's not the only one.  The world needs to be saved, and we all have to play our part: as Wilde's characters step back and forth between the Victorian drawing room and the 21st-century theatre, their cheerful meddling with the future draws more and more spectators up onto the stage.  The performers come armed with a host of creative ideas for engaging with the shyest of punters, and work well together with all their "volunteers".  Not all of the interactivity really serves a purpose, though, and just occasionally the random interventions proved more distraction than entertinment.

As Algernon, Yaz Al-Shaater has the difficult task of ad-libbing his way through the chaos, and his affected bluster was charming but sometimes lacked direction.  Actor-playwright Tom Crawshaw, with a more scripted role, proves perfectly-cast as Earnest; his cut-above manner never slips, but he's engagingly shy in the presence of his beloved Gwendolyn.  Amidst a strong supporting cast, James Moxon Browne deserves a special mention as Lane - Algernon's butler - the one solid pillar in an ever-shifting world.

Mixing science fiction, Victorian values and a fair dollop of farce, Crawshaw's script stands up alongside Wilde's - with a whole new set of social conundra arising from the appearance of a time portal in one's drawing room.  He has fun drawing parallels between Wilde's world and the present day (there's even a hastily-penned News Of The World gag) and the plot careers without hesitation towards a predictably ridiculous conclusion.  Expect flying sandwiches, lovers hidden under tables, and a woman wearing a false beard.

At the very end the action ranges wider still, but the mechanics of working the audience aren't quite thought through; it gets slightly bossy, and for a few moments risked becoming farcical in all the wrong ways. But they pulled the whole thing back, and for running with it - quite literally - to its obligingly heartwarming conclusion, they earn their four star.  If I'm Frank, there's still some work to do on this show; but it's a cracking idea from a talented company, and my hopes for its future are Earnest.

FringeGuru's new Fringe Spirit Award recognises those performances which contribute to our enjoyment of the Fringe, above and beyond the factors reflected by the traditional star-rating system.