Views From An Aisle Seat

Släpstick are a Dutch group of unbelievably talented musicians and comedians. They tour the world and are not often seen in the UK. They performed recently at Wilton’s Music Hall in London, a perfect venue for their quirky vibe. The picture above shows a routine with Beethoven and Schubert as ventriloquist’s dummies which was hilarious.

Another routine involved them all playing instruments which were being held by a different person. It’s hard to describe but the level of skill displayed in it is extraordinary. Worth travelling to see them if you get the chance.

This was a 1970 rock musical version of Shakespeare’s Othello. It starred Jack Good (the man behind TVs Six Five Special and Oh Boy), P.J. Proby and P.P.Arnold. The production was at what was then known as ‘The Birmingham Theatre’ but is better known as the Birmingham Hippodrome. It transferred briefly to London but was not particularly successful. I loved it and still listen to the cast album (recorded live on the night I saw it in Birmingham).

I’ve sung the praises of Chichester Festival Theatre before but they’ve had another great season. Two standout productions for me were ‘Oliver!’ and ‘Redlands’.

‘Oliver!’ got a real makeover and came across as fresh and exciting. Not surprisingly, with Matthew Bourne as director, the dance numbers were superb. The new slant on the Fagin character worked well. Not sure about a couple of the new jokes that were added but brilliant performances all round.

I knew ‘Redlands’ was about the Rolling Stones court case in Chichester in the 1960s and was rather expecting a courtroom drama. There were some courtroom scenes but the show was, in fact, a joyous, funny, rip-roaring musical. I wasn’t expecting a teenage Nigel Havers to be amongst the characters ( his father was the barrister who defended the Stones ). Lots of great songs from the 1960s and some very moving scenes between Nigel and his father. Loved it.

The clues below all refer to dramatic characters called ‘Charles’, ‘Charlie’ or ‘Chuck’. Can you tell me their other names, the plays in which they appear and the authors of those plays ?

1. This Charles was haunted by the ghost of his late wife, Elvira.
2. His surname is not recorded but he boasts that “he that escapes me without some broken limb shall acquit him well”.
3. This Charly had a Brazilian relation.
4. Here Charles was the surname. She had an affair with Jimmy in a 1950s classic.
5. Charles is the surname again of the uncle of Berniece and Boy Willie.
6. He was defeated in combat by a woman to whom he said, “Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, And fightest with the sword of Deborah”.
7. His surname is never mentioned but he has a son called Bernard and a neighbour called Willy.
8. Known as Chuck, he is a bartender and plans to marry Cora and buy a farm in New Jersey.
9. An archbishop told him, “You cannot be allowed to see this crazy wench.”
10. He reflected, “I’m Charles no more the human being but transformed into a Spitting Image puppet”

Scroll down for the answers.

1   Charles Condamine     Blithe Spirit       Noel Coward

2   Charles the wrestler        As You Like It       William Shakespeare

3   Charly Wykeham        Charly’s Aunt       Brandon Thomas

4   Helena Charles        Look Back In Anger     John Osborne

5   Doaker Charles         The Piano Lesson          August Wilson

6   The Dauphin, later Charles VI of France. (The woman is Joan of Arc)   St Joan    George Bernard Shaw

7    Charley, Willy Loman’s neighbour       Death of A Salesman      Arthur Miller

8   Chuck Morello       The Iceman Cometh      Eugene O’Neill

9   It’s the Dauphin again, the ‘crazy wench’ being Joan of Arc.       Henry VI Part 1    William Shakespeare

10 Charles Windsor, our own King Charles III       King Charles III    Mike Bartlett

This was the first show I saw at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. I have seen hundreds there since then but as a student in the first year of my English course at Birmingham University this show and one other (see a later post) made me an RSC fan for life. Judi Dench played both Perdita and Hermione with some clever trickery when both characters appear together for the first time in the final scene. The sheep-shearing festival was accompanied by a rock score and wild dancing. Derek Smith as Autolycus proved that, of course, Shakespeare’s clowns can still be funny today. An absolutely magical evening.

Here are ten clues to items which feature in comic plays. Name the plays and the authors.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.   ( sort of )

7.

8.

The missing parts of Sir Winston Churchill.

( Oddly, I couldn’t find a picture of these. )

9.

10.

Scroll down for the answers.

1. Noises Off    Michael Frayn . . . . . . .  A plate of sardines
2. Bedroom Farce   Alan Ayckbourn  . . . . . . . .  Some pilchards
3. Educating Rita   Willy Russell
4. The Importance of Being Earnest   Oscar Wilde . . . . . . . .  Cucumber sandwiches
5. Arsenic and Old Lace     Joseph Kesselring . . . . . . .  Elderberry Wine
6. Charley’s Aunt     Brandon Thomas . . . . . . . .  From Brazil where the nuts come from
7. The Lieutenant of Inishmore    Martin McDonagh . . . . . . .  A dead cat
8. What The Butler Saw    Joe Orton
9. Art . . . . . . .  Yasmina Reza  A blank white painting
10. A Comedy of Errors    William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . A rope’s end

Here are two programmes from nine years apart. As a student in 1971, I saw Peter O’Toole at Nottingham Playhouse. His performance was spellbinding. I have included a newspaper review at the end of the programme. Harold Hobson put it better than I ever could. One of my all time great nights in a theatre.

Ten years later I was at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester at a production starring Max Wall and Trevor Peacock. By now I was a teacher and studying the play with my A-Level group. They were bright students and liked the play but, whenever I suggested that it was at all funny, they would not have it. It was sad. It was tragic. It was full of despair. Definitely not funny. I couldn’t persuade them. So, I took them to see this production and, as these two superb comic actors had the Royal Exchange audience rocking with laughter, I turned to my students and whispered, “It IS definitely funny”.

This programme is from 1970. The play was Tom Stoppard’s first big hit. As a student in Birmingham I used to visit the Rep quite often. This was the old building in Station Street, not the current building next to the library. I remember the seats in the circle had an incredibly steep rake. Sitting there, you felt like a goat clinging to the side of a mountain. The programme cost 1/- ( 5p ). Most modern programmes are about one hundred times more expensive, although admittedly the quality is better today. It is interesting to see that the actors’ biographies refer to them as ‘Mr Gostelow’ and ‘Mr Drinkel’. This seems like the formality of an earlier age.