The Rude Life! Barbara’s sweary show causes a stir
sHe was the famously clean-cut Barbara in seventies sitcom The Good Life, but Felicity kendal’s latest role has shocked some fans.
The actress stars in a play littered with four-letter words, leading one theatregoer to complain that she eventually walked out.
The Argument, by best-selling novelist and screenwriter William Boyd, is billed as a ‘darkly funny play’ exploring the damage that can be done by things said in the heat of the moment.
But Lyn Clarke said she was disgusted by the foul language when she went to a performance at the Theatre Royal in Bath. she wrote to her local newspaper to express her disgust about the number of times ‘the F word’ was used.
she said she had walked out when ‘the C word’ was used.
Mrs Clarke, from Bath, said that the character played by Miss kendal, 72, did not swear – but she was shocked the actress would ‘put her name to this play’. Mrs Clarke wrote to the Bath Chronicle: ‘I was given two tickets by a dear friend as they could not go. We thought great, a night out. It was Felicity kendal.
‘Well, I couldn’t believe the number of times the F word was used, and one word was the C word, which was saved to near the end, otherwise I would have walked out earlier.
‘I can’t believe someone has to pay £85 [for two tickets] to sit and listen to that sort of language. I’m not a prude but I’m so glad I wasn’t the one to pay for the tickets.’
Her letter, carried on the Bath Live website, drew critical comments online. one called Mrs Clarke a ‘typical Bath snob’ while another pointed out that the 75-minute play had been described as ‘a dark and waspish comedy of bad manners’. A third wrote: ‘I’d recommend staying away from theatre in general if you’re going to be offended easily.’
The Argument, which ends tomorrow, has received several poor reviews, with the Daily Telegraph’s critic writing: ‘Not even Felicity kendal can save this summer stinker.’ The Times called it ‘thinner than an overstretched sitcom’.
‘Shocked she put her name to this’