BARELY pausing for breath after their hugely well-received production of the musical Avenue Q, Little Theatre Company players embark on another production.

They have selected the Odd Couple, Neil Simon’s classic comedy about two divorcees who share a flat, and end up “divorcing” each other.

The 1965 hit Broadway play was filmed in 1968 with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and became one of the year’s top box-office hits.

Then, in 1985, the playwright reworked the Odd Couple for a female cast. The original core characters, Felix and Oscar, became Florence and Olive. It is this version LTC will stage.

Sally Lightfoot plays Olive, the engaging slob not quite sure whether the green substance in her fridge is very new cheese or very old meat. Easygoing and generous, she throws open her New York apartment to her friend Florence, played by Stephanie Wilson, alone and homeless after her marriage break-up.

Initially, the arrangement works OK. But uptight Florence finds Olive’s untidiness and late-night lifestyle increasingly hard to take. Olive has equal difficulty with Florence’s obsessive tidiness. The breakdown of their relationship plays out the disintegration of their marriages all over again.

Sally says: “Audiences laughed non-stop when the Odd Couple came out, and it remains as hilarious as ever. The script of the female version hasn’t been changed very much from the original, apat from obvious alterations. For instance, the two girls who Felix and Oscar date in the original, have now become Spanish brothers.

“Audiences will find this new version every bit as funny as the original.”

However, Sally points out that like so much great comedy, the Odd Couple also has an underlying strain of poignancy. “This is, in the end, a comedy about the break-up of marriages, loneliness and the failure of relationships,” says Sally. “Neil Simon’s writing shows a really good understanding of women, particularly the way they are effected by a relationship breakdown.”

The poignancy is never allowed to overcome the hilarity, however. Male or female version, the Odd Couple remains one of the greatest comic achievements of the playwright the New York Times called “the world’s greatest laughter machine”.

The Odd Couple Palace Theatre, Westcliff.

Tues to Sat, May 3 Nightly at 7.30pm, mat Sat 2.30pm 01702 351135 01702 351135