I’m afraid it’s fairly obvious that Gary Sinyor first wrote this as a film script almost ten years ago. In fact the humour is so dated I’d believe it was 30 years ago.

It starts with a whistlestop tour of Moses' ancestors with jokes about circumcision and female genitalia that are crude in every sense of the word.

Based on the bible story of Moses (Thomas Nelstrop pictured below) it aims to get us all laughing at religion - Christianity and Islam, but mainly Judaism- using the construct of a man called NotMoses (Greg Barnett) , who was dumped back in the Nile by the Egyptian princess for crying too much.

Writer/director Gary is a big fan of Monty Python and the parallels to Life of Brian are hard to ignore with NotMoses parents nagging him and all but telling him he’s a very naughty boy.

Nelstrop and Barnett both have an easy charm and indeed all the cast make a good go of it with no bad performances. And the production is a visual treat with projections of the pyramids and Dead Sea that give a sense of epic scale and gorgeous costumes by Carla Goodman. But all this could not prevent it from at times feeling like a 20-minute university sketch that had been stretched out to breaking point.

Borehamwood Times:

Things also look impressive in Pharaoh’s (Dana Haqjoo) court but the jokes aren’t any better, featuring stinky cheese and the Holocaust. But the mood picks up when a jaunty Egyptian guard (Joe Morrow) arrives on stage flicking his whip and making cheeky inferences to S&M. In fact he lifts the mood throughout and easily steals the show.

There was laughter from the audience, one woman a few seats down seemed to love the quips about nose jobs, schtooping and Matzah balls, which were lost on most of us.

But for the most part and, despite the fast-pace scene changes, we plod through the story with many jokes falling as flat as the unleavened bred the slaves choke down.

By the end, after a laboured dialogue from Miriam (Danielle Bird) about the need for equality, it seemed many of the audience were wishing for their own exodus. The woman in front of me had slumped further and further down in her seat, presumably under the weight of so many groan-worthy jokes.

Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB, until May 14. Details: 020 7836 8463, NotMosesOnStage.com