It rivals The Rivals
Just back from Jack Absolute Flies Again at the Olivier - a reworking of The Rivals set on a WWII fighter base during the Battle of Britain.
What many feel, on seeing The Rivals, is that there isn’t enough of Mrs Malaprop or the comic servants. This show meets that need, and in spades, with Caroline Quentin (Mrs Malaprop) and Kerry Howard as Lucy the maid smashing the 4th Wall, ably abetted by Peter Forbes as a dominating Sir Anthony Absolute – appearing as a Major General with Julia as his driver.
In this, Lydia Languish (Natalie Simpson) is a AAF pilot, delivering Hurricanes to the base. Mrs Malaprop’s topsy-turvy language comes tumbling in far greater spate than the original, and, for today’s sensibilities it is far more lurid, but no less funny for that. It is played perhaps less as a satire (but that was always fairly heavy handed) than a farce and there are many (very) funny moments.
But the setting is one that inevitably becomes serious, as the flight scrambles and dog-fights are projected round the auditorium.
The real feelings of that time (1940) are genuinely reflected in the writing (Richard Bean and Oliver Chris) and there are real moments of pathos not in the original.
But, overall, a great farce which Covid has made us wait too long for, and well worth seeing and enjoying.
Not an intellectually demanding play (but then, One Man, Two Guvnors, also by Bean wasn’t either), but that’s a joy. The set design is clever and accommodating for the action.
See it if you can – there were empty seats tonight. [Now out of rep].