When Fawlty Towers first hit the screens of British TV 50 years ago it took a little while to gain traction, but by the time the final episode aired it had pretty much secured its future as a cult hit. One thing that writers John Cleese and Connie Booth judged perfectly was their decision to pull the plug after 12 episodes, leaving audiences wanting more and never reaching a point where the comedy of the situation was written out.
Consequently, in turning it into a stage play, Cleese (who wrote this current adaptation himself) made the equally sensible decision to work with the existing material rather than writing new storylines. Three episodes have been grafted together to make about 95 minutes of stage time.
Here we have The Hotel Inspectors, in which Basil fawns over all the wrong people while insulting the actual inspectors, then Communication Problems, where Mrs Richards, who refuses to turn her hearing aid, on frustrates Basil’s plans to put a bet on a horse. Finally comes The Germans, which is possibly one episode that had the most going on in it, in particular the ongoing pantomime with a moose’s head and a disastrous fire drill, and of course that thing which Basil says ‘I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it’.
Note that I am writing about all these plot points with the assumption that everyone knows what I’m talking about, and that really is very much the point with this play. The biggest delight is that pretty much everyone in the audience is so familiar with these storylines, gags and dialogue that you can sense everyone around and about you hanging on every line waiting for their favourite quote. And there it all is, from the herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain to the timeless ‘I know nothing; I’m from Barcelona!’
Such is the affection that everyone has for this classic fare that even Dennis Wilson’s opening title music gains rapturous applause before a word has been spoken. By this time we have had several minutes before the lights went down to admire the astonishing detail of Liz Ashcroft’s split-level set. Alongside the pale yellow damask wallpaper that adorns almost all the public areas of the hotel, the regency stripe of the office has been pulled around from behind the scenes to combine that space with the reception desk, so that office, reception, lobby and dining room are all in permanent view. Sitting above is the room with its ‘sea view’ (over there, between the land and the sky) and a dolls-house like representation of the hotel exterior alongside it. The whole thing is surrounded by oversized lamps with barn doors, giving the impression that we could be a studio audience watching the actual episodes being made.
Equally meticulous are Ashcroft’s recreations of the character costumes, all of which could be straight out of BBC Wardrobe.
But it is the crack-shot cast who make this show the obvious success that it is. If ever there was a case for carefully crafted impersonation-style performances, this is it. Danny Bayne, Mia Austen, Hemi Yeroham and Joanne Clifton all bring us astonishingly well studied performances as Basil, Sybil, Manuel and Polly. Every movement and gesture is captured to absolute perfection, as are all their facial and vocal nuances.
On opening night, Paul Nicholas, set to play Major Gowan, became indisposed shortly before his first entrance, and he was replaced at short notice by his understudy Neil Stewart. Not having Nicholas to compare with, it was however hard to imagine that anyone could have made a better job of the part than Stewart, who had every detail of the bumbling Major completely in hand, both physically and vocally.
The supporting cast, including some splendidly drawn cameos for many of the incidental and recurring characters, are all beautifully choreographed into the perfectly timed action.
With the exception of a few of the most offensive racial slurs (mostly belonging to the major) which have been subtly erased, the script is very much intact in its original form, and remains pretty close to the knuckle at times, albeit with a few clever changes of order to enable the three separate episodes to run together into a single narrative. Notably, neither Sybil nor Basil are seen in hospital with their respective ingrown toenail and concussion, but these plot points are referenced from the setting of the hotel itself.
Director Caroline Jay Ranger succeeds in shaping the development of comedic tension to give the story a more theatrical arc, and the familiar farce and slapstick builds masterfully during each of the two acts, culminating in glorious mayhem at the play’s final climax.
Whilst it will undeniably reap the greatest reward for the legion of fans of the source material, Fawlty Towers the Play hangs together really well as a standalone piece of theatrical farce, and will no doubt be making a fair few converts among the uninitiated.
This absolutely mammoth UK tour, which follows a sold-out West End run, is at Liverpool Empire until Saturday 15th November, and then continues touring, with dates booking nationwide through to next August.
Star rating: 5 stars
Mia Austen and Danny Bayne as Sybil and Basil - Production images by Hugo Glendenning
The cast of Fawlty Towers the Play
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
Comments
Post a Comment