When Time emerges unexpectedly in the twelfth scene, ‘he’ reveals himself as a witty icon of post-modernism: his recall is total, he appears to travel value-free, and he indiscriminately mixes up time, place and circumstance. But the Revue too has these characteristics: it draws on poetry and drama from the last two millennia – abundant verse forms, Morality Play, mime, rhetoric and the trials of love – together with a ‘Masque of Hay’ involving allegory, satire and dance; its characters are socially refined, temperate and rude; and it appears to enjoy upending the very aspirations it promotes. The whole is not just playful, poignant and bawdy, but also strongly directional.

Bespoke cover image by Mick Rooney, RA