A little
trouser-dropping is never really out of place on stage, and with a falling towel
or two and a beautiful young secretary running around in her skimpies, it’s
clear there’s a Ray Cooney farce under way.
Suspend your disbelief
at what unfolds because, like the actors, you’ll have a whale of a time. It’s
over 35 years old now but this summer-season trouser-dropping show IS still
funny.
Jeffrey Harmer is a Tory
MP hoping for some extra marital fun with a minion from the opposition side of
the House (Susie Amy from Footballers’ Wives) until he discovers a body in his
hotel room which puts a stop to any thoughts of romance.
Soon there are doors
(and the window) opening and closing, people popping in and out, here, there and
everywhere as the plot not only thickens, but gets hopelessly
tangled.
Sean Williamson, (EastEnders’ Barry Evans) as the beleaguered personal private secretary, shows mastery of a range of emotions – taking the audience along for the ride through his bewilderment, agony, anguish, desperation, mania and what can only be described as an unknowing smouldering sexual prowess.
Arthur Bostrom (from
‘Allo ‘Allo) appears as a hotel manager who continually walks in on people in
compromising positions. And there’s Sue Holderness (Only Fools) and Cooney
regular David Warwick in the mix too.
As always, the contrived
jigsaw slots nicely together after all the big set-ups in the first act, as the
second sees events spiral out of control only to be neatly – and satisfactorily
– dispatched as the play hurtles towards its
close.
There’s not much
imagination required to see the bare cheek (!) of it all. In fact some of what
you don’t see gets the biggest reaction. That, and the actors shrugging off a
jammed door with aplomb.
This is an updated
version of the original 1990 play and while there are certainly some (now)
rarely heard “phwoars” which set it back in time, up-to-date references to UKIP,
Brexit, our current prime minister and the leader of the opposition firmly place
it in the present day.
Of course, all of the to-ing and fro-ing would never
happen now because of the mobile phone – but who’d consign a fun evening like
this to history?
