A star-studded web show to entertain the whole family
Tweedy’s Lost and Found
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the myriad theatre projects flowering online during shutdown, but if I had to single out one plucky little contender from the field that has won my devoted, agog attention it’s Tweedy’s Lost and Found.
This 20-minute clownshow performed by the titular Tweedy (real name Alan Digweed, 45), who usually practises his buffoonery with Giffords Circus, is streamed live every Wednesday at noon from the Barn, Cirencester (an unfunded regional upstart, punching above its weight in its programming). It’s aimed at cheering children stuck in lockdown but it should appeal to anyone with an inner kid yearning for release during these pent-up times.
It’s such a dependable hoot to watch that its pop-up celebrity cameos are merely an added bonus, but the calibre of those taking part not only confirms the esteem in which the Barn is held but also the high-regard for the show’s hyperactive, giggling star, who’s kitted out in bowler hat, red tie and baggy grey suit and consorts with a pet iron called Keith and “social distancing broom” called Steve.
This week, following in the footsteps of Daisy May Cooper (in character as grumpy Kerry in This Country), Helena Bonham Carter and Claire Sweeney, up cropped Hugh Bonneville to offer the short (pre-recorded) video appeal to
Tweedy to track down a missing item of property amid his chaotic “lost and found” office on the Barn’s stage. In previous shows, the clown had searched for Kerry’s plums, Bonham Carter’s lost hairbrush and Sweeney’s bananas.
Now things took a turn for the symbolic as the Downton Abbey star, squinting into the camera in his garden, straw-hat shielding a sun-kissed face, with Paddington Bear seated nearby, declared: “I’ve completely lost my marbles! Could you help find my marbles?”
The mission was actually already accomplished (our host had previously pranked around with them). This was merely an interlude to Tweedy proving himself to the clowning manner born – repeatedly barging through a door and toppling over his desk with Keaton-esque finesse, his breathless delivery and eyebrowwaggling artistry putting you in mind too of the great Mark Rylance.
The Spanish flu epidemic hit Downton Abbey, you may recall. Today’s pandemic is proving a leveller for entertainers, inviting thespian aristocracy and the lower orders to muck in. A hundred years ago, Hollywood might well have beckoned for a loon of Tweedy’s class. Albeit he’s only bringing merriment to computer screens, we should still (after a strictly figurative fashion) embrace him.
Barntheatre.org.uk; tweedyswebsite. com; youtube.com