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A tad too British?

Constantly shifting theatrical registers, "A Very British Affair" worked - but only in parts

PHOTO: S. R. RAGHUNATHAN

GENEROUS DOSE OF SLAPSTICK From "A Very British Affair"

Timeless melodies, familiar lyrics, in-your-face-comedy and streaks of pathos... it had all the ingredients for a fascinating evening.

However, there was a small but significant catch about the musical revue of the Singapore-based Escape Theatre's "A Very British Affair." It was probably a tad too British and much too contextualised for city audiences.

Punctuated with double entendres, generous doses of slapstick and some interesting musical performances, the revue was entrenched in a tradition of humour that ranged from Morecambe and Wise to Rowan Atkinson.

Given the ingrained nature of the script, a little more familiarity would have probably bred a little more appreciation; satire, after all, works best when audiences are familiar with the original.

For instance, the `aah' factor in the song "The Man from La Mancha" was the fact that Don Quixote and Sancho Panza were also playing two characters from the BBC's hilarious television serial "Fawlty Towers" — the hotheaded hotel owner Basil Fawlty and his endearingly meek Spanish waiter, Manuel. The actors themselves cheerfully drew attention to the possible disconnect by remarking, "I think we are losing them" halfway through the performance.

The revue, directed by Samantha Scott-Blackhall, featured just two actors, Mark Waite (who wrote and compiled the script) and Matt Jasper (who compiled the music), and a spiky-haired pianist, Ian, whose fingers flew over the baby grand piano, skilfully altering the mood as quickly as the former hammed, improvised, sang and danced their way through the free-flowing and unstructured script.

The journey was more a ramble through the garden to admire the roses rather than a walk towards any particular destination.

Hence, the performance, rendered with their hearts on their sleeves, shifted registers frequently and sometimes rather abruptly, moving from slapstick to pathos, from playing with farce to seeking out poignancy.

The shift in theatrical registers was confusing, but perhaps inevitable given the manner in which this tribute to British musical theatre evolved.

It was a play that grew by accretion — from a 20-minute show created for a Christmas party thrown by the British High Commissioner to Singapore into a full-length play that undergoes changes with almost every performance. The skit of the prim and fussy theatre director who is about to stage Hamlet — for instance — was written only the previous night by Mark.

Short sketches

Given the nature of the script, it is best regarded as a series of short sketches. And as it was played before a packed audience at the Music Academy last Friday, some worked better than the others. The spoof about the Devil organising the latest entrants to Hell into different groups — based on Rowan Atkinson's performance in the path-breaking television comedy series `Not the Nine O'Clock News' — was especially funny. And there was a neat and spirited finale (`All For The Best'), which would have ended the performance on the cheery note it began with. However, the duo chose to finish on a more sombre, emotional note with `You'll Never Walk Alone' by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Although the performance was patchy, the fact that the duo poked fun at everybody, including themselves, made it possible to laugh with and laugh at them. And since it's really a pretty small world after all, some members of the audience identified with a number of their sketches, such as Noel Cowards' "Why do The Wrong People Travel." ("What peculiar obsessions/ Drives those processions/ Of families from Houston, Tex/ With cameras around their necks.")

Interestingly, the sketches also included some dead serious pieces, including Matt's rendition of "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables" from Les Miserables. ("Or as we say in the North of England," The Glums) and the surprisingly poignant "Agony" by Steven Sondheim and James Lapince sung by Cinderella's Prince (Mark) and Rapunzel's (Matt) with an engaging mix of pathos and optimistic humour. They added an element of funny-endearing to the performance which otherwise would have been just funny-ha ha.

This play was staged as part of The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Festival at The Music Academy on August 4.

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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