Perfecting the comedic art of the straight man in Jeeves at Sea
Where: Chemainus Theatre, 9737 Chemainus Rd.
When: May 10 - June 2 Tickets: $22-$74, Chemainus Theatre box office (250-2469820) or chemainustheatre.can (theatre and dining packages $65-$122)
A popular series of plays based on a fictional character created by British author P.G. Wodehouse has found a sympathetic home at Chemainus Theatre, which will unveil its fourth instalment in the series Friday as part of its 30th-anniversary season.
Jeeves at Sea is the latest adaptation by playwright Margaret Raether of Rockford, Illinois, whose series of Jeeves plays are centred around the titular manservant/butler/valet, the comedic exploits of whom spanned 60 years and a series of short stories and novels by Wodehouse. Chemainus Theatre enjoyed great results with the Raether-written Jeeves in Bloom (2014), Jeeves Intervenes (2015), and Jeeves Takes a Bow (2017), which has expectations soaring for Jeeves at Sea, which opens today.
“We have people coming from across Vancouver Island to see the show,” said Michelle Vogelgesang, the theatre’s marketing and sales director.
The title character in every Jeeves performance at the Chemainus Theatre thus far has been played by the Vancouverbased
Bernard Cuffling, who was born and raised in London. He’s returning for Jeeves at Sea, and is looking forward to further developing the mannered Briton. “I love playing Jeeves,” Cuffling said. “But in theatre, you never know how things are going to work. We’ve had hits with three so far, so I’m touching wood that the fourth goes as well as the others, because they were real crowd-pleasers.”
Jeeves works for a somewhat hapless man named Bertie Wooster, who is played to the comic hilt in Jeeves at Sea by Brett Harris. Cuffling is the straight man to Harris’s character, and the two have a pendulum-swinging relationship based around a mixture of servitude and friendship. If Jeeves is doing his job properly, he’ll disappear into the wallpaper. That is the role of a manservant such as Jeeves, according to Cuffling.
“If I drop a spoon or trip or anything, it’s like a house of cards. [Jeeves] has got to be this Rock of Gibraltar, a strong, strong straight man. It’s a huge challenge. But it’s fun.”
Jeeves at Sea, which runs for 28 performances through June 2, is both mentally and physically demanding for Cuffling. But he has a built-in understanding of the character. Cuffling comes from a working-class background, which helps; the class system in England is the functioning core of the series, both from a dramatic and comedic standpoint. He was keenly aware of the financial division between classes while growing up.
“It has nothing to do with being snobs or elitists,” Cuffling said. Jeeves must always be of service to his superior, even though the fop was born into money and has never worked a day in his life. “The job of a manservant is to do everything correctly, to organize the lives of the very rich — no questions asked.”
In Jeeves at Sea that means covering up the tracks created in the wake of his often-unaware employer, much like John Gielgud’s valet did for Dudley Moore’s bratty heir in the hit 1981 film Arthur.
“For a funny man to be funny, he has to have a straight man. Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy. And in that sense, Jeeves has to be absolutely perfect. He’s all-knowing, and sorts everything out, but he’s not the loud voice. He’s the background.”