Master chef of the comic twist, and sometimes legal eagle, Tony Laumberg whips up a comic storm with his new play, ‘Undercover Lawyer’.

‘Undercover Lawyer’ sees the return of the playwright’s most popular characters, the ever feuding St Ives couple, pompous CBD lawyer, Henry and his perpetually inebriated wife, Margaret. This time the couple are the puppets of ASIO. Their strings are pulled to and fro by two quirky ASIO opertatives, the attractive and alluring Pamela Goodbody, and the mysterious, suave Roger Sinclair. The question becomes will Henry and Margaret be able to break free from the clutches of ASIO, and return to their ordinary, bland and quarrelsome lives?!

The play’s main ingredients are the byplay betweem Henry and Margaret, the tomfoolery of the ASIO operatives, a clever plot that has plenty of twists and turns, and most of all the comic antics of ASIO suspect and Henry’s next door neighbour, Charlie Dickens. It’s an inspired recipe and makes for an entertaining spy spoof.

Richard Cotter is again in the director’s chair, his 10th play with Laumberg, and helms the fast paced production with a light but sure touch. For the first time in their collobaration, Cotter also takes part in the action, playing the trench-coated Roger Sinclair.

Mark McCann and Tricia Youlden effortlessly reprise their roles of Henry and Margaret. They have got their characters down to a fine art. Nastassja Djalog makes for a sexy secret agent, Pamela Goodbody. Daniel Felkai steals the show as animal psychic Charlie Dickens and his scenes when he gets in touch with pets on the other side are hysterical.

All is not what it seems in ‘Undercover Lawyer’! In fact, very little is what it appears to be in Laumberg’s zany, spy versus spy comedy.

Recommended, ‘Undercover Lawyer’ plays the Tap Gallery, 278 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst until Sunday 29th August, 2010.