DAY
TWENTY-EIGHT. AGE TWENTY-EIGHT.
I always said and intended to be a veterinary
nurse when I grew up, right up until I actually had to put some effort into
that. I was put off by The Form Tutor
telling me that I was smart enough to be a veterinary doctor, rather than a
nurse, which made me feel like The Lifelong Ambition had been something to be
derided and uncomfortable because I had wanted to be a nurse specifically
because I wanted to do the caring rather than making the live or die
decisions. And then The Best Friend’s
Mother said I would never make it as a veterinary nurse because I wouldn’t be
able to cope with the animals dying, which was offensive because she was
suggesting I hadn’t put any actual thought into The Lifelong Ambition. And that was about it for me.
I was sick of people telling me that there was
something wrong with The Ambition, so I thought fine, screw you all, I won’t do
this useful career. I’ll do The Dream Job instead. So I decided to become an actor.
So anyway…
Not being millionaires, The Housemate and I cannot
afford to go to all the theatre shows that take our fancy and there are a lot
of good-looking shows and interesting actors bobbing around the West End. So this year we decided that we could have
one vote each, but a show would have to really really really take our fancy and
if we bought tickets for it then that was it, no more votes for the rest of the
year.
I cast my vote aaaages ago, but The Housemate still
had his.
What happened was this: The Housemate saw on Twitter that Robert Webb
was plugging the fact that he was going to be in Jeeves and Wooster in the West
End. We both love Robert Webb. But that wasn’t a good enough reason to fork
out for West End tickets. After all,
Jeeves & Wooster are a double act, so it would really depend on who was
playing Jee—
Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense
(a new play from the works of P G Wodehouse, by The Goodale Brothers/Ambassador Theatre Group/Duke Of York’s/11th June 2014)
Based on The Code Of The Woosters, which coincidentally
The Housemate was reading at the time, the show is told from the point of view
of Wooster, who acts out the story with his butler Jeeves and some other butler
playing multiple roles.
Opening with Robert Webb was good. I like Robert Webb. But when Mark Heap came on I realised what a
thankless role Jeeves is. He might be
the archetype that all butlers have been based on since, but he doesn’t get to
have any fun. So I was extremely
relieved when Mark Heap started playing the other roles, particularly the
women. (The Butler who is obsessed
with J&W was annoyed to see Jeeves doing this sort of thing, which he
thought was out of character, but frankly the less Jeeves-Jeeves the better for
me.)
I felt a little sorry for the other guy
though. Who makes Jeeves and Wooster a
three man show? It always felt a little
like there was a third wheel around.
And if I’m honest, it wasn’t as funny as it could
be. It was funny, but repeated jokes never escalated as much as they could
have and scene after scene ended without a really funny line. It was all a bit ‘could be funnier’. Which is no reflection on the actors, who
were marvellous. Just the writing needed
to be sharper at times.
And maybe I was harsher on it because we’ve seen
The 39 Steps, which is a similar concept of one character narrating a story in
which a small amount of actors play multiple roles with minimal props, and is
absolutely hilarious.
It was an enjoyable show (I like those ‘multiple
role’ comedies) but it never quite peaked its head out of the shadow of the
fact that we’ve seen The 39 Steps, which is just better.
But still, Robert Webb is charming, Mark Heap makes
a hilarious woman, and the stage trickery of one actor playing more than one
character in the same scene was at times utterly sublime.
What's your favourite Jeeves and Wooster story?
Sadly, it's not just The 39 Steps - there's a whole river of anarchic street-theatre shows just like Perfect Nonsense, with actors swapping roles as often (and as easily) as hats.
ReplyDeleteThe Ha Ha gang are a great example: we've had several of their shows at The Theatre I Work At, so Ha Ha Hitler, Hamlet, Holmes etc., and they're always a loony joy to watch. There's The Reduced Shakespeare Company and the like, who condense huge, serious works into silly revues. There's The 39 Steps, obviously, which makes the most of props and totally dead-pan silliness. And One Man Star Wars, just a guy and a mic, where he even does the sound effects.
None of which means you can't keep finding new ways to explore this mode of theatre - I liked all the shows I just listed, they're all individual. Just that, in the case of Perfect Nonsense, it really didn't add much to what I'd seen before. Those particular actors are mainly what was going for it.
The odd thing is, I don't actually love The 39 Steps as much as I have been saying. Both times I saw it, I was with someone who was enjoying it more than me. Yet I'm still using it as the bar of excellence.
DeleteAlso, in case you are curious, that is exactly what your frown looks like.
ReplyDeleteWell I am an artistic genius.
Delete