Jill Simkin as PC
Leslie, Steve Hyett as Mr Worthington, Christina Peak as Betty, Roger
Shepherd as Frank Spencer, Joanne James as Mrs Fisher and Carl Horton
as Father O’Hara
Some mothers do 'ave 'em
Grange Playhouse, Walsall
*****
Oooh . . . nice. You will be hard pushed
to find a better tribute to British comedy icons Frank Spencer and Betty
than this sparkling production at The Grange Playhouse.
It is laugh out loud funny, an evening of total
mayhem, physical comedy, bannisterial bruising of the nether regions and
with enough electrical and structural faults on the set to have any
health and safety executive needing therapy, and, for those of a certain
age, it is pure nostalgia harking back to the days of Michael
Crawford and Michele Dotrice.
Frank and Betty arrived on our TV screens in 1973
and although only 23 episodes were ever made they became part of the
fabric of our comedy psyche and like all icons have to be treated with
care and Grange give them all the respect they could ever want.
Chris Pilkington is quite superb as the hapless
Frank, displaying that one talent you can never teach – timing, knowing
instinctively just how long to delay an answer or aside for maximum
effect. It leaves an audience aching with anticipation building the
laugh like a comedy pressure cooker.
He has the mannerisms of the Frank those of a
certain age know and love but this is no Stars In Their Eyes
impressionists’ job, Pilkington gives us enough Frank to lay down a
marker and then makes the part his own.
Frank is permanently between jobs, or, more
accurately, between job interviews and supporting him is Christina Peak
in a lovely performance as the long suffering Betty, somehow surviving
among the chaos created by Frank and his legendary DIY non-skills. We
open with her being pregnant and trying, unsuccessfully to tell Frank.
It’s a message left undelivered for much of the play.
Betty’s mother, Mrs Fisher, is played with a
slowly increasing level of inebriation by Joanne James after finding a
sort of immunity to the damaging effects of Frank’s mother’s prune wine
but not to its alcohol content.
Mrs Fisher is after a sort of fisher man and
currently has her hooks into Mr Worthington, a wealthy, single bank
manager, who Frank has decided could be a possible investor in his
magician’s career (don’t ask). His loan application is comedy gold.
Carl Horton as Father O’Hara, Chris
Pilkington as Frank and Steve Hyett as Mr Worthington
Steve Hyett’s Mr Worthington, Scottish as they
come, finds himself in a parallel universe with no one sure what Frank
knows about Betty’s pregnancy, if anything, and Frank rambling on about
a letter from the BBC about an interview that Mr Worthington is unaware
of, leaving the only certainty total confusion all round.
And that brings in Mr Luscombe from the BBC and
camera operator Leslie, Leslie being played by Jill Simkin. Robin is
laid out by Frank’s door without a letterbox and ends up in Frank’s hen
house in the corner of the living room (another don’t ask)
How that all fits in when the police arrive about
the £6,500 theft from the town hall is, well that’s all part of the
plot, as is Father O’Hara, played, or perhaps more endured by Carl
Horton. He is choked, half drowned, blown up and taken closer to his
maker more times than he would wish and he is merely an onlooker.
The beauty of the whole production is that writer
and director Guy Unsworth created the play in consultation with the
original scriptwriter Raymond Allen as a complete play.
This is no welding together scenes from the TV
series into an ill fitting mish mash of well known bits but a complete,
new comedy, written for the stage, and, particularly in the second act,
although the plot is a bit of a stretch and at times plain old silly
there is enough stupidity and daftness to keep the laughs flowing and it
remains true to the original.
As well as the splendid cast the set from Martin
Groves also has a starring role with bits that fall off, explode, burst
into flames around furniture which seems to have a small but vital
deficit when it comes to the leg department.
It is all aided by spot on lighting and sound
from Stan Vigurs and Colin Mears, which make the quite complex special
effects of lights, bells, record player, cooker coming on and off on
cue, or at least on thump of the wall or stamp of the foot, actually
work.
Director Kerry Jones and her cast and crew have
set a remarkably high bar for the rest of 2024 and if you want a laugh,
a bit of nostalgia and an evening of wonderful theatre, then some
mothers will be ‘avin ‘em, as long as Frank is kept away from tools or
wires, or indeed the building, to
20-01-24.
Roger Clarke
12-01-24
Ronnie Barker and Norman Wisdom were the BBC’s
first choices for the role of Frank and David Jason was also considered
before Michael Crawford was approached.
The theme tune from Ronnie Hazlehurst has two
piccolos playing the letters of the title in morse code.
|
