'For much of this production you’ll be thinking you’ve landed in the middle of a missing 13th episode of Fawlty Towers’, says Andrew Morris.
OUR VERDICT
Billed as ‘a new farce by John Cleese’, Bang Bang! Is an adaptation of Georges Feydeau’s ‘Monsieur Chasseur’, first produced in 1892.
The veteran Python and Torquay hotelier said of the Parisian original: 'It's brilliantly plotted. The dialogue is not that great – I can't judge how good it was in the original French, but the English version is just dreadful so I am going to rewrite it all, change a little bit of the plot.’
Would that you had changed a little more, Mr Cleese.
The ‘brilliant plot’ is classic French farce: Monsieur Duchotel is le chasseur, a euphemism for hunting his mistress rather than any wilder animals; his so-called best friend Doctor Moricet is ardently pursuing Léontine, Madame Duchotel; the cuckolded Monsieur Cassagne unexpectedly shows up at chez Duchotel, helping Léontine’s penny to drop.
The action culminates with mistaken notes, unrequited lust, the wrong trousers, slamming doors, hiding in a cupboard, a balcony exit - pursued by a couple of gendarmes - and an unlikely reconciliation.
And what of the rewrites?
For much of this production, you’ll be thinking you’ve landed in the middle of a missing 13th episode of Fawlty Towers.
Monsieur Duchatel, played by skilled comic actor Tony Gardner (Last Tango in Halifax, Stella), has so much of Basil about him that you expect a hotel inspector to arrive in the boudoir. Pragmatic Léontine – Tessa Peake-Jones (Grantchester, Only Fools and Horses) – is Sybilesque, her cane-pummeling of a hat replacing Basil’s car-thrashing branch from the Gourmet Night episode. Cassagne’s dress and mannerisms are a Parisian version of legendary dumb Spanish waiter Manuel.
The cast does what they can with the fragile script and hackneyed plot. Richard Earl initially appeals as poetry-writing Doctor Moricet, then appals as frustrated, thwarted lover.
PAUL BLAKEMORE
Wendi Peters (Coronation Street, Cardiac Arrest) impresses as Madame Latour, a Countess in reduced circumstances after her affair with a lion-tamer.
Daniel Burke revels in his role as Gontran, the foppish, money-grabbing nephew of Duchotel. Vicki Davids convinces as sexy maid Babette, sarcastic and all-seeing, rather like Fawlty Towers’ Polly.
David Shields’ stage design is a real star of this production, chez Duchotel morphing cleverly into the adulterous apartment while Countess Latour serenades the audience and the illustrious cast transforms the scenery.
Bang Bang! is the less than subtle double-entendre title of the farce, marooned somewhere between 1892 and the 1970s. ‘The old codger with the small todger’ might give an idea of how dramatically Mr Cleese has brought Monsieur Chasseur up to date.
- Venue: The Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford
- Dates: 02-07 March 2020, Mon-Thu 7:45 pm; Fri-Sat 8:00 pm; Thu & Sat 2:30 pm
- Ticket prices: from £25.50 (book here)
