Mr Foote's Other Leg, Hampstead Theatre, review: Richard Eyre directs with admirable command of the play's tricky tonal palette

One can say, with some certainty, that Samuel Foote (1720-77) would have relished the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch where a hopping monoped auditions for the role of Tarzan: “I've got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is – neither have you”. Indeed, you could argue that this Truro-born actor, playwright, theatre-manager, pioneer of “improv” and dangerous alternative comedy, helped to inspire it. Simon Russell Beale is in his tragi-hilarious element here portraying the now-undersung figure who refused to allow a leg-amputation in 1766 to cut off his career.