Described as ‘a sparkling comedy’, Secret Bridesmaids’ Business by the Australian playwright Elizabeth Coleman, certainly sparkles much of the time, though an ominous note is struck fairly on in the first act, and the main plot development in the second act must surely create more reflections than guffaws or grins.

There are no weak performances

It is certainly a skilfully written and constructed play, which has had much success since it was first performed in 2001, and which deserves much larger audiences than the one among whom I sat last Sunday.

It is set in a hotel suite (an elegant and practical set by Stephanie Spiteri) where a bride, Meg (Cathy Lawlor) and her mother, Mrs Bacon (Vanessa Macdonald), make final preparations for next morning’s wedding between Meg and her fiancé James (David Ellul).

Mrs Bacon is one of those perfectionists who have devoted much time and energy towards producing a first-rate event and hate even the tiniest of flaws, so she panics time and again over the ribbons on the pews in church or the forced use of a shiny surface for one of the two brides-maids’ shoes not matching the other’s shoes.

Cathy’s nerves are milder, just those most brides experience, and the company of her two bridesmaids, Lucy (Nicola Abela Garrett) and Angela (Kate de Cesare) cheers her up and makes the drinking of champagne and playing games highly desirable.

During Meg’s short absence, however, Lucy tells Angela of an unpleasantness that affects Meg. Lucy considers herself duty bound to tell Meg about it, but is persuaded not to tell her as yet.

Coleman uses the old device, one that I certainly like in this comedy, of making characters – this time, almost all the ones in the play – come downstage and tell the audience confidentially about their hopes, fears and possible intentions.

This may be a lazy way to make the audience enter the characters’ minds but it makes them feel closer to the characters. It is a technique that can be very effective and that is acceptable once the theatre has long decided to ignore the strict demands of realistic theatre. It is also a good test for the individual actors, a test failed by none of the members of this talented cast.

By the opening of act two, Lucy has dropped out of being Meg’s bridesmaid, for reasons I shall not divulge. We see a tearful Meg agreeing to accept another friend, Naomi (Elektra Anastasi) – whom the audience has not yet met – as Lucy’s replacement.

From this moment, the action becomes more frantic, and the celebration of the wedding itself more doubtful. But Coleman keeps the audience both excited and hopeful till the end. If some audience members find they are shedding a tear, all of them should feel exhilarated by their encounter with a group of people often so close to themselves and to the people they know in real life.

Chiara Hyzler, directing for MADC, has come up with a tight production, and there are plenty of well-timed laugh lines and a good few lines that tug at the heart strings.

Her direction of the monologues is nearly impeccable and she has made sure that all the lines are comprehensible even in the emotional scenes. The variety of accents did not bother me; ironically there was not one Aussie accent.

She has certainly made a very good job of casting. There are no weak performances. Lawlor’s Meg’s nervous gaiety in the first act, good but unremarkable, does not prepare us for her tour de force in the second act. Here, she has to express a whole gamut of emotions and in one big scene manages to express deep-lying emotions with impressive control.

As Lucy, Abela Garrett gives the best performance I have seen from her so far. Lucy is a marriage sceptic – “Marriage sucks”, she says – but this may be due to her desire for complete sexual freedom and experimentation.

She has even had one lesbian experience, but does not sound too enthusiastic about it. She is a very good friend, however, and it is her very desire to be absolutely truthful with her friends that leads to the main problem at the heart of the plot.

She does not stand on dignity in the way she speaks and the way she moves, but there are times when a fleeting facial expression can gives a clue to the softer feelings underneath.

As Angela, de Cesare is a quieter, perhaps more mature woman, whose marriage has not been exciting for quite a while, leading her to go astray just once.

Of this she is ashamed, and most probably she will not do it again. Like Lucy, however, she is a fiercely loyal friend to Meg, and in one scene she can barely keep her temper under control when she sees that if something is allowed to happen, it will be a disgrace to Meg and her marriage.

As the controversial substitute bridesmaid, Naomi, Anastasi brings out the character’s lack of integrity in her monologue. One of the other characters describes her as sexually voracious, and she clearly does not know the meaning of friendship.

Macdonald’s mother is not just a funny, middle-aged woman who goes frantic when wedding-cards are not properly folded or if the number of ribbons on the bridegroom’s side are not exactly the same as those on the bride’s.

She is a woman for whom the wedding will be the biggest creative act of her life and so is terrified by the thought that some of her planning will go wrong.

At one crucial moment, Meg accuses her of thinking much more of the wedding than of her daughter, and Mrs Bacon allows us to see this accusation has really hit its mark.

Ellul’s James is a successful young lawyer who thinks that life is a gorgeous game. He does have his scruples, however, and he certainly loves Meg, but he cannot honestly promise that he will be strictly faithful “till death does them part.” He is, on the whole, a likeable young man, and the long kiss he and Meg exchange in one scene is a witness to the strength of the love between them.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Secret Bridesmaids’ Business gets a final performance tonight. It would be a pity if you missed it.