UNTIL JUNE 27 2004, BATH: Neil Simon uses wit as a defence against pain. So, while his characters and plots are invariably entertaining and have you laughing out loud, there is always an awareness of the underlying pain.

Sometimes you are laughing and crying at the same time. Evelyn (Evy) Meara, the central character in this play, is a recovering alcoholic nightclub singer.

She's just spent ten weeks in rehab and has come home to mounting debts, two close, kind and vulnerable friends, and a 17-year-old daughter who wants to take care of her.

Lesley Joseph is Evy. She's tough, emotionally frail, funny, coarse, cynical and tender a mass of contradictions.

She's unkind to those who love her, but you care about her just the same. Ms Joseph conveys all these conflicting qualities that make up a human being.

It's a delightful, funny, angst-ridden, heartwarming performance.

We also have Jimmy, a gay, struggling actor played with impeccable sensitivity by Jonathan Guy Lewis.

He is camp without over doing it. He's Evy's best friend, always there to comfort her, help with the hangover and encourage her to beat the demons.

Evy's other best friend is Toby (a woman despite the confusing name) played by Miranda Foster.

She has what must be one of the most difficult speeches to memorise.

It is a rant, listing all the preparations, treatments, exercise routines, her lifetime of devotion to herself, that she has gone through to remain the most beautiful and desirable woman in the world, only for her husband to suddenly announce he wants a divorce because he is bored with her.

Ms Foster delivers the speech without pause for breath. It is an exemplary performance.

Meanwhile Sinead Keenan, as Evy's daughter, tries to understand her mother, and her friends and to get a handle on the situation.

She's innocent, but not naive and does her best to inject a semblance of sanity into her mother's lifestyle.

In the eccentric company Ms Keenan comes across as a strong character.

There is also Lou Tanner, Evy's past lover, whose desertion sent her into the downward spiral that led to her spell in rehab. Vincent Patrick plays this spaced out hippie guitar man the play is set in the Seventies who pops back into her life in disastrous fashion.

The sixth member of the cast is Bernat Molina, who makes the most of his role as the Spanish delivery boy from the local store. He is funny, sharp and very New York hispanic.

If you enjoy Neil Simon and like Lesley Joseph, this combination is irresistible.

It's at Bath until Saturday.

By Jo Bayne

The Gingerbread Lady by Neil Simon

Bath Theatre Royal