There was a time when a visit to the National Theatre guaranteed the very best in productions and performances and we rushed to book when the season’s programme dropped through our letter box, now we wait for the reviews to tempt us to go online to book a visit to the ageing concrete venue that is looking the worst for wear around its edges. Shows like Warren Mitchell in Death of a Salesman (1979), Guys and Dolls (1982) and Anthony Hopkins in Pravda (1985) remain some of the greatest production I have ever seen. Another two memorable shows were the 1983 production of Sheridan’s The Rivals with Geraldine McEwan and Fiona Shaw and Richard Bean’s One Man Two Guvnors (2011) so we were tempted by the generally favourable reviews for Richard Bean’s reworking of the classic restoration comedy the Rivals into Jack Absolute Flies Again. The result was an amusingly pleasant Saturday night in a two-thirds full Olivier Theatre.
Bean’s reworking with Oliver Chris takes the basic love story from The Rival’s moves it from Bath to a Second World War Airfield (on the pretext of celebrating the Eightieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain, sadly missed due to Covid delays) and adds some of the comedy elements that worked so well in One man two Guvnors as the cast regularly break the fourth wall. However, in that hit, the cast created believable characters and the farce had a logic that made it funny. It was played for laughs with brilliant slapstick but was never over the top nor relied heavily on sexual innuendo. In this latest adaption despite the best efforts of the cast the comedy feels more laboured, the jokes more often miss the mark and none of it seems remotely believable!
