Star rating – 9/10
Oliver
Goldsmith's timeless period piece provided another bawdy and brilliant night’s
theatre courtesy of National Theatre Live. It is a great, classic, hilarious
farce with mistaken identities and class differences making for frolics and fun
in frocks. Written in 1773, this delightful play proves that good comedy is
ageless, with lots of the jokes seeming as funny today as they must have been
to eighteenth century audiences.
Although the
noise levels were a bit loud at first - Steve Pemberton as Mr Hardcastle in
particular seemed a bit shouty – most of the acting was simply exemplar. Significant
press attention has gone to ex-Corrie star Katherine Kelly as Kate Hardcastle,
whose would be suitor mistakes her father’s country house for an inn, leading to
uproarious confusion. And she certainly proves she is much more than a soap
star ‘has been’. But in truth this play contains stand out performances almost
all round.
Sophie
Thompson in particular was hilarious as Mrs Hardcastle, who desperately tries
to impress her guests with her knowledge of the London fashions, and who has a
fantastic array of glorious facial expressions and voices to match, to more than fulfil the part.
There are some great two handed scenes such
as those between John Heffernan as Hastings, who has some very
funny asides to the audience, and David Flynn as Tony Lumpkin, the son who
would rather be in the local inn with the rural folk than in his mother's
home with his rich step father with pretensions of grandeur.
Young
director Jamie Lloyd chooses to keep to with period costume for this totally
camp and outsize adaptation, which also contains beautiful costumes and a cleverly
rotating set. He brings out Goldsmith’s themes of opposites – town v country,
class v class - in this highly entertaining, and witty satire. This was another
triumph for great theatre on the cinema screen. If you’ve not tried it yet and
are still sceptical – then you really should.
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