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Bedsits and memories Rising Damp Malvern Theatres *** LIKE anyone who
has seen the television series
Rising Damp
I found it hard to imagine anyone
other than that revered cast playing the roles of Rigsby, Alan, Philip
and Miss Jones. Almost before the first lines of the play had
been delivered, however, the audience's delight was palpable, as it
became clear that Stephen Chapman was going to give us a spot on
performance of Leonard Rossiter's version of the pathetic Rigsby,
stutterings, bizarre mannerisms, nervous tics and all. The same can be said of the three other
characters, albeit to a lesser extent. Cornelius Macarthy as Philip
convinces Rigsby, if not the audience, that he is a multi-wifed African
prince, and Paul Morse comfortably inhabits the role of medical student
Alan, previously played by the much loved Richard Beckinsale. Amanda Hadingue is the fourth and final cast
member, and her portrayal of the lustful and flouncing Miss Jones ticks
all the right boxes, with more than a nod to Frances de la Tour's
interpretation of this flighty object of Rigsby's unrequited lust.
Interestingly, the play is directed by Don Warrington, who of course
originally played sophisticated student Philip all those years ago. Set in a seedy boarding house in an anonymous
northern university town, this production is in fact based on Eric
Chappell's first play The Banana Box which was produced at the
Apollo Theatre, London in 1970. In the early 70s The Banana Box was
transformed into what was to become ITV's top comedy of all time,
Rising Damp. Scenes from the television series have been added into
the original play to create this new stage version of Rising Damp,
brought to us by the Comedy Theatre Company, who also produced stage
versions of Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies and the BBC's Birds
Of A Feather. The squalid shared rooms of Alan and Philip made
for a convincing set, and there was much laughter throughout the show as
we witnessed landlord Rigsby's unsuccessful attempts to woo Miss Jones
who was far more interested in the charms of her younger housemates. I felt though that despite originally being
written as a play, Rising Damp did work better as a sitcom, as so
much of the entertainment and humour is character based rather than
being driven by any kind of plot. The storyline itself is rather flimsy (Alan moves
into the house and ends up moving out) and whereas the character of
Rigsby was written to make fun of prejudice and bigotry I felt that a
lot of the humour was very dated and that the regularly visited theme of
Philip being black and ‘other' wore rather thin. One line which made me wince referred to drama
queen Miss Jones, about whom it was said, ‘To the starving man, all
bread is fresh.' Thank goodness television and theatre roles for women
have (mostly) moved on a little since the 70s. As an exercise in nostalgia, however, and as a
piece of light-hearted entertainment, this production worked well. It
seemed that the majority of the audience were fans of the sitcom and for
them this play brings old, familiar (although possibly not all loved)
characters back to life. I'm sure after watching this, there will be
plenty of people eager to watch the television re-runs, if only to
compare the acting of the original stars with that of this new cast. I'm
tempted to do the same myself. Almost. To 15-06-13. Amy Rainbow Rising Damp moves on from Malvern to Norwich, Sheffield, Woking, Bradford and Richmond
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