When: Wednesday 11th April
Where: Novello Theatre
Why: Hellooo, under-25 £12 tickets.
How fit is the Novello
theatre? If I had to live in a theatre, Phantom stylee, it would definitely be
the one I choose. It’s so cute inside: all little narrow corridors and slender
dark wood doors leading goodness knows where. There were ladies toilets ALL
OVER THE PLACE and it was the first time ever at a London theatre ever that I
didn’t have to queue for a wee. Ever. This might not sound like a big thing but
I was very appreciative. Plus the stripy wallpaper in the loo was stupendous,
and they had green tiles that were VERY Ministry of Magic.
So anyway, yeah, the play
was good too. We were in the front row with under-25 £12 tickets, thanks to the
clever booking of my thespy pal, and were so close that once it started I felt
like I was actually IN the play. Which was actually fine, as it was the kind of
full-on, action everywhere, mental farce that you felt totally engulfed by
anyway, so I think we really got the proper experience if you ask me. The
action was intense and insanely well executed – I have honestly never seen
rushing about on a stage done so skilfully, and I’ve seen a LOT of farces at
the Tynemouth Priory Theatre… The cumulative layering of hilarity was so
relentless that by the end I was reduced to an exhausted, hysterical mess. It
could almost have been too much ridiculousness, but they managed to rein
it in just enough in the third act to allow me to leave with sides just about
intact.
I was looking forward to
seeing Celia Imrie (total legend) in the flesh, and she was excellent as
expected. The Guardian review described her portrayal of Dotty as ‘a glorious
confection of precarious ego and incipient dementia. When she cries out,
"I leave the sardines?" she somehow gives
the line a riddling philosophical resonance worthy of Beckett.’ Which I
whole-heartedly agree with. Janie Dee and Karl Johnson were also brilliantly gigglesome
and touching.
We also noticed as we
perused the programme that almost everyone in the cast had at some point in
their career appeared on Midsomer Murders. I think there was only one person
who hadn’t managed it, but they had been in Casualty, which is probably
the second most popular entry in an acting CV (closely followed by The Bill) so
we forgave them.
Definitely
worth a watch. If you’re in need of a couple of hours of escapism and hysteria
(and who isn’t?), then get down there asap. Plus you’ll get to see what I mean
about the toilets.
Brixpig x
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