Performances deliver British farce at its best
Outrageous and bawdy ‘Out of Order’ is perfect summer fare
English playwright, Ray Cooney, is known as the master of the British farce, a particular style of theatre that is so outrageous and bawdy that audiences tend to laugh themselves into fits of tears and aching bellies.
Such was the case Thursday night at the opening of Drayton Entertainment’s “Out of Order” at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse.
Like all farces, there is mistaken identity, characters are duplicitous, doors slam, everyone leaps to the wrong conclusions, someone is trying, without much luck, to have a sexual tryst and there is often a dead body involved.
Though Cooney’s scripts are fast paced and funny, the true strength in any production is the cast. The actors need to be mas-
ters of physical comedy, have perfect timing and be able to pull off nuanced mannerisms. The 10-member cast for “Out of Order” rises to the occasion on all counts.
The comedy centres on Richard Willey (Mr. Dick Willey, get it?) a philandering junior minister in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government who, instead of partaking in a critical parliamentary session, decides to book into a posh hotel room with the lovely Jane Worthington, from the secretarial pool.
They are just getting cosy when Jane flings open the curtains only to discover, gasp, a dead body slumped over the windowsill half in, half out. Is this a burglar who tried to climb through a window just as it slammed shut on his head? Jane wants to call police, Willey doesn’t want to be caught in a comprised situation and so the scheming begins.
Mr. Williey’s long suffering personal assistant, George Pigden, played brilliantly by Jacob James, is called in to help dispose of the body. Poor George is a mousy little character who still lives at home with his hypochondriac mother and he is not pleased with what his boss is asking him to do, though it seems resistance is futile.
Jacob is so deliciously good in the role of George the audience roared with appreciation during the standing ovation.
To add to George’s dilemma, Jane’s husband Ronnie targets him for a good beating after Willey, in an attempt to shift suspicion away from himself, identifies George as Jane’s lover.
Ronnie, played by Dan Payne, is a tough chap who despite his size and aggressive temper is given to fits of weeping as the cuckolded husband.
Lauren Bowler in her Drayton debut, plays Jane with an exaggerated British accent contrived to hilarious effect. Bowler is a skilled comedian and the perfect partner to “Mr. Willey” played by the equally funny and capable actor, Darren Keay.
There are so many wonderful performances in this comedy. And while there is not a weak performer in the bunch, there are several standouts: including David Talbot as the dotty old waiter who knows something funny is going on in that hotel room, and frequently turns up to annoy Willey and the gaudy hotel maid Maria, played by Sarah Lynn Strange.
Talbot is small and wiry with that sort of frenetic energy reminiscent of Tony Robinson’s Baldrick in the British series “Blackadder.” Whenever he appears on stage, there is laughter.
Oddly, another standout was Andrew Scanlon as the dead body. He spends most of the time on stage in a state of floppiness, manhandled by Willey and George who at various times are either hanging him up in the closet or folding him into a wheelchair, pretending he’s just sleeping.
Scanlon plays a great dead body which can’t be an easy role as he must appear to be immobile while at the same time having enough control to be manoeuvred by the other actors without them straining themselves. Scanlon is a pretty big guy, particularly for poor George to lift.
“Out of Order” is not intellectual theatre. There are no deeper messages but thanks to a skilled cast and funny script, this is perfect summer theatre fare though not suitable for kids or anyone without a sense of humour.