Rules for Living, National's Dorfman Theatre, review

Rules for Living at times borders on being the funniest and truest comedy I've seen in ages, but it's also the strangest and most strained. It shouldn't really work at all. That it does, just about, is a testament to the talented array of actors that director Marianne Elliott has assembled - among them Deborah Findlay, Miles Jupp and Stephen Mangan - and the bravura bonkers nature of playwright Sam Holcroft's conceit, which boasts a hefty Big Idea even if it almost capsizes itself.