United Kingdom National Theatre’s Jack Absolute Flies Again (by Richard Bean and Oliver Chris and based on Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals): Filmed (directed by Tony Grech-Smith) at the Olivier Theatre, London, and screened by National Theatre Live at Cineworld Basildon, Essex, 6.10.2022. (JPr)
It all began with the phenomenal success of Richard Bean’s reworking of Carlo Goldoni’s eighteenth-century comedy The Servant of Two Masters as One Man, Two Guvnors. Bean this year teamed up with Oliver Chris (who acted in the earlier hit) and together they have restored (!) another old play, Sheridan’s 1775 comedy of manners The Rivals which, I read, shone a mirror on the social mores of the days over the course of three love affairs. I will admit straightway I have seen neither the Goldoni, Sheridan nor One Man, Two Guvnors.
The names remain very much the same, I understand, and so does ‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ scenario only now it is August 1940 at RAF Fontwell in the verdant East Sussex countryside and in the grounds of a stately pile, Malaprop Hall, all brought to life by Mark Thompson’s picture book set. Mentioning ‘stately pile’, Mrs Malaprop remains front and centre in the new play and she addresses the audience directly to introduce herself as: ‘A character created by Richard Bristly Sheridan. Mrs Malaprop became famous for an egregious mangling of her verbiage to ‘ysterical effect. ‘Owever! I am a parsonage of great lexicographical dexterity and faultless electrocution. Not to mention my grammar, about which no one is able to find fault with it.’ And so, it continued in Caroline Quentin’s incredible tour de force with increasingly risqué malapropisms, one of the mildest is flattery/flatulence, then there is clematis/clitoris and what she does with Count of Monte Cristo cannot be written here.
We are totally – and unashamedly – in the double-entendre world of an imaginary Carry On Brylcreem Boys or something Mischief Theatre – of The Play that Goes Wrong fame – might have devised, the only difference being that at the Olivier Theatre there was no danger that the doors may stick or scenery collapse in Emily Burns’s slick production.
Another important character is the maid Lucy (the excellent Kerry Howard) who turns to the audience and asks, ‘Why are plays always about posh people? Beautiful rich idiots falling arse over tit in love, and all the bleeding maid gets to do is oil the effing plot delivering love letters to the wrong people.’ Then there is Jack Absolute’s love interest – posh girl with pretensions – Lydia Languish, who to save time explaining the complexities of the farcical plot is pursued by a posse of red-blooded airmen but has her own plans for the future when she spies the RAF’s hunky, working-class fitter Dudley Scunthorpe (Kelvin Fletcher) and envisages living with him on a citrus farm in Barnsley.
We learn that Lydia knows Lucy when she says, ‘Would you Adam and Eve it, we’ve been best muckers for twenty years even though you were my maid. But it’s the war now and I’ve realised that, as women, we’re all equals.’ And later how she is there for ‘A couple of days R and R or until the old dog and telephone rings. This week’s been a right bastard, mate, dropped off three Hurricanes. I’m proper cream exhausted.’ We will see Lydia’s new-found feminism go only so far and no more. Watch out for the extended wooing of Lydia by Jack-as-Dudley which is a highlight of the entire cast’s incredible comic timing. They also all throw themselves energetically into a Jitterbug dream-sequence (with music from Paul Englishby and Lizzi Gee’s choreography) which is probably only there to remind us briefly that Quentin and Fletcher have both been in Strictly Come Dancing.
Elsewhere among the pilots there is the virginal Roy Faulkland (Jordan Metcalfe), head over heels (almost literally) in love with Julia Melville (Helena Wilson), his first cousin (which amuses the others). Tony Khattri (Akshay Sharan) a pilot and fledgling poet is only called ‘Tony’ because he says no one can pronounce ‘Bikram’. He is always being told his poetry is what someone else has written until he poignantly comes into his own at the end. Then there is James Corrigan as Bob Acres, whose naïve and cocksure optimism about his prospects with Lydia leads to him offer her a bees’ nest (as you would) at the suggestion of rival Jack. He is later involved in a three-way boxing match whose brilliance must be seen to be believed. Mild-mannered Intelligence Office Brian Coventry (Tim Steed) has some suppressed desires of his own and equally straitlaced – but to wonderful comic effect (‘Be quiet! I’m shouting!’) – is Peter Forbes as Jack’s father, the bumptious Major General Anthony Absolute, and he will elicit our sympathies at the conclusion of the play.
Finally, Laurie Davidson begins with all the gung-ho, stiff upper lip-ness of a heroic British air ace before his romantic illusions unravel to his increasing – and very funny – exasperation. However, throughout the play the war is never far away and there are a couple of impressive dogfights on video from Jeff Sugg. The final scene (no spoiler here!) brings you back to the tragic realities of war and the Major General sets off for Brock Hill Farm in Wickford, north of Basildon, which is actually just a few metres from where I have written this!
Jim Pritchard
Production:
Director – Emily Burns
Set and Costume designer – Mark Thompson
Lighting designer – Tim Lutkin
Sound designer – Paul Arditti
Video designer – Jeff Sugg
Composer – Paul Englishby
Choreographer – Lizzi Gee
Physical Comedy Director – Toby Park for Spymonkey
Cast:
Bob ‘Wingnut’ Acres – James Corrigan
Peter Kingsmith – Theo Cowan
Jack Absolute – Laurie Davidson
Dudley Scunthorpe – Kelvin Fletcher
Sir Anthony Absolute – Peter Forbes
Flight Sergeant Sampson – Shailan Gohil
Lucy – Kerry Howard
Roy Faulkland – Jordan Metcalfe
Mrs Malaprop – Caroline Quentin
Bikram ‘Tony’ Khattri – Akshay Sharan
Lydia Languish – Natalie Simpson
Brian Coventry – Tim Steed
Julia Melville – Helena Wilson