Alasdair McCrone and Peter Arnott, director and writer respectively, of this entertaining squib, performed an early extract of it at the annual Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland ceremony this time last year. Jokes about touring theatre around Scotland in a van, the “welcome” from obscure village halls, the “helpful” intervention of Arts Council apparatchiks, all drew knowing chuckles from the assembled theatricals.

The weakness in the finished article for Mull Theatre, now touring itself, is that the whole thing remains a bit inbred. There are only so many times you can ridicule the litany of business plans, inclusion strategies and performance indicators. On the other hand, they certainly need to be ridiculed regularly, and, seeing one arts bureaucrat in the audience at this performance, one has to applaud the courage of McCrone and Arnott, who have taken their fair share of public money over the years, for sticking it to them.

Anyway, it’s hard to resist this bunch of touring theatricals led by Mr Swindle and Mr Death, who make Donald Wolfit or Simon Callow look like shy introverts. Played by the old stagers Andrew Dallmeyer and Hamish Wilson, this is the Art of Coarse McActing of a very high order.

The plot, such as it is, involves Marjorie, a young woman from the Arts Council who has discovered this weird company living “off the grid”, or at least without the benefit of a Scottish Arts Council assessment package, and come to file a secret report on them to the head of the Arts Council. The two old hams quickly spot not only her cover but also her weakness — as an ex-drama student who never quite got the jobs she wanted, she is still subject to the lure of the footlights.

Everyone has plenty of fun, especially Sarah Haworth who gives a very funny but wildly politically incorrect performance as the female member of the company. Even Robin Peoples, the designer, gives us a lovely mock-up of a travelling theatre.

As a meditation on the illusory nature of all theatre, it is less persuasive and the whole thing is overextended. But I laughed, loudly and often.

Touring until June 28, www.mulltheatre.com

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