More than 100 years after The Importance of Being Earnest was first staged, Oscar Wilde’s satirical comedy still has the audience in hoots of laughter.

Never mind that this is a play with a twist – novelist Simon Brett has re-written it as a play-within-a-play – the original script is still very funny as it mocks the establishment and the social mores of the time.

The play, subtitled A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, is an absurd melange of deceit, misunderstandings, romance and business which ends in three marriages.

In director Lucy Bailey’s version, playing at the Theatre Royal this week, a group of veteran actors known as the Bunbury Players, are rehearsing their old favourite.

The Bunbury conceit, written by Simon Brett, bookends the play, but for most of the time this is much as Oscar Wilde wrote it. His wit is still as funny and relevant as ever.

It could be argued that Wilde’s words should be left as they are, but the conceit of a play-within-a-play allows Bailey to cast a company of actors who might otherwise be deemed too old for the parts.

And, although the average age of the actors is pushing 70, what a star studded cast it is. Martin Jarvis, 72, and Nigel Havers, 62, take on the same roles that they had in the 1982 production at the National Theatre, that of young bachelors John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff respectively.

Sian Phillips, 81, brilliantly plays the redoubtable Lady Bracknell, revelling in her formidable manner and imperious tone. Cherie Lunghi, 62, plays Gwendolyn Fairfax.

The use of veterans in roles usually played by those much younger may take a little initial adjustment but it is very easy to suspend disbelief, particularly with consummate actors like these. In any case, Havers is blessed with looking much younger than his years so it is easy to imagine him as a young blood in his 20s.

The original play is very humourous, and to my mind, having actors play parts which they played 30 years only adds to the enjoyment.

You’ve got until Saturday to see it for a very funny night out.