The Edinburgh Exported Season at the New Ambassadors Theatre allows Londoners to sample the fare that entertained Fringe followers in August.
The melodramatic introductory music and plush set gives a good idea of what The Elephant Woman is about. It is a spoof of the film of a similar name but pokes fun far more widely.
James Bachman's top-hatted Dr Frederick Treves relates a sad tale to the good denizens of the London Hospital. His dry style is reminiscent of Angus Deayton or Chris Tarrant.
With the help of a cast of several, all played by his co-writers, Barunka O'Shaughnessy and Lucy Montgomery, he tells the story of a maimed woman, Anella Fant, who has an Eliza Dolittle-like transformation to nubile (literally), billiard-playing operatic genius.
The ladies play a variety of parts. Miss O'Shaughnessy is at her best as a nurse and scatological Russian ice maiden. Miss Montgomery has a great sense of humour, especially as a rather Artless Dodger and in the title part, shared with her female colleague.
This hour-long playlet can be extremely funny but there are also several misses as repetitious jokes are overly-laboured. A camp Lancastrian Oscar Wilde badly lets the happier moments down.
The real highlights crowd together near the end as we are treated to a wonderfully tragic silent movie scene followed by a very funny elephant stampede.
The effort that has gone into David Sant's production is impressive with some delightful props, especially a well-crafted horse and carriage and several puppets.