If comedy is a serious business then Nikolai Erdman’s farce The Suicide takes it very seriously indeed. In her new version for Storyhouse, Rebekah Harrison has transported it into modern day Chester. Director Michael Bryher aims to balance issues of unemployment, food banks, despair and exploitation with extremes of comic effect.
Simon is unemployed and suicidal, and his unscrupulous landlord Alexander dupes a succession of people into buying shares in his death in aid of their own causes.
Whilst the play is meant to be overtly farcical, there are times when some of the characterisations fall a little too far into outdated stereotype. Tim Frances’s Alexander in particular is a jarringly awkward performance, with brash masculinity juxtaposed with a limp wristed camp that belongs in 1970s sitcom. That said, depictions of everyone from a mass extinction campaigner to a Catholic Priest are treated with such irreverence that it’s hard to say whether this intentionally aims at a broadside offence in all directions.
After the interval action recommences in the theatre foyer, returning to the auditorium after a few minutes. A ploy borrowed from Storyhouse’s Julius Caesar, this saps the play of its momentum at its most pivotal point.
Tom Davey and Natasha Bain are outstanding as Simon and his wife Marie, and Nicola Blackman delivers a very funny turn as Marie’s mother, Sarah, having stepped in to cover the role at late notice.
This is certainly raucous fun, whilst never quite managing to rise to the razor sharp wit of its source.
3 Stars – A riotous and lively farce that’s top-heavy with social stereotypes
This review was originally written for and published by The Stage, and is posted here retrospectively in its original unedited form.
 |
| Camille Mallet de Chauny - Photo (c) Marc McNulty |
Comments
Post a Comment