Oh Clarence!
| Although the Britten
Theatre in Prince Consort Road is hard to find, it was
packed for "Oh Clarence!". I sat in a row which
appeared to consist entirely of members of the Society,
including Kris Fowler just before she flew back to
Minnesota. This is a real farce including elements from three novels and two short stories. Tony Ring says so in his Catalogue Introductory Notes, and if anything he underestimates it. The cast of 12 act with a pace and a pinpoint accuracy, whether in the inane replies of chinless Freddie Threepwood (Dominic Cazenove) or the Galumphing Rupert Bingham (Ed Seyfried) breaking coffee cups or occasional tables. Sir Gregory Parsloe Parsloe was the scarab-collector and being attended by a characteristically impostor doctor. There was new good dialogue: watch out for the impostor doctor talking to the real one that Constance summons. The odd thing was that a play got such professional acting from a cast of 12, when the usual choice is a lot of good amateurs or about three top-notch professionals. This, more than the music or the clothes (about which our fashion purists raised an eyebrow or two), established it as set in the Wodehouse period. Six of the seven scenes were set in a suitably sumptuous Drawing Room at Blandings Castle; the programme says "1954" but take no notice of that. The seventh scene is Lord E's bedroom, to reinforce the farcical. The words both "gay" and even "queer" come into the script with no homosexual meaning. If you have read this in time, and can get a seat, see it. John Fletcher |