It isn't easy to direct or perform 19th century sex farce. The 19th century was an age when newly emergent freedom allowed the middle and intellectual classes to cast an ever-broader net of social satire, in which every character might be an object of ridicule.

The successful presentation of this hinges on maintaining the correct tone when the characters speak ironically to each other, as well as when they make sincere comments that we viewers recognize to have additional ironic complications because of details, which we know, but they do not.