Barrie Atchison, who plays the telephone repair man in the Lichfield Players' forthcoming production of Barefoot in the Park

In the popular mind the term “amateur” when applied to theatre is really code for “not very good, but what can you expect?”

I don’t know about the rest of the country but as I’ve said before, theatre in Lichfield is going through a golden era (The Elephant Man, My Boy Jack to name only two recent outstanding shows), and Gina Martin’s production of Neil Simon’s Barefoot In The Park is another peak.

From the very start, even before the play begins, inspired attention to detail is everywhere. The sound track of early sixties Anglo-American hits was period, but without nostalgia- they sounded fresh and new

“Wouldn’t it be nice?” sang the Beach Boys as if they, like the young couple in the play, were just starting out. The set too is a miracle of comic invention – the bare cold water brownstone flat with no furniture for the newlyweds to sit, or sleep, on. No one ever mentions the sound and lighting guys but here Brian Asbury and David Ashton get it just right.

It’s the hallmark of a good production if the stage play makes you forget the film. Here the play’s revealed as better than the film, a miniature masterpiece, a sort of chamber comic opera for four voices. And what voices they are.

Zoe Male as Corrie the newly married Noo Joysey girl in love with love and life is just right, the very spirit of comic optimism. Barrie Atchison really outdoes himself as the garrulous comic foil telephone engineer, while Tony Coxon is just right as the laconic delivery guy. John Cleaver as the other half of the newlyweds is astonishing – the sheer energy of his second-half performance would kill a lesser man.

But it’s the veterans who I suspect will remain in the mind longest – Phil Shaw as the ageing lothario Victor Velasco is just right, neither sleazy nor threatening but instead a charming chancer. His performance is a comic tour de force.

And for me an even greater treat was Adrienne Swallow as Corrie’s mother Mrs Banks. Right from her first entrance in a state of comic near-collapse after climbing so many stairs, she convinces that she has long had a secret life somewhere in the New York area she goes home to at night. This really is a performance to cherish.

I’m going to try and see it again before the end of the week. Get yourself a ticket and join me for a night out you’ll remember for a long time to come.