TheatreguideLondon
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The TheatreguideLondon Review
Once Bitten
Orange Tree Theatre
Winter 2010-2011
Isn't it always like that? You wait forever for a good French bedroom farce and then two come along at the same time.
Joining the Old
Vic's Feydeau this winter is the Orange Tree's rediscovery of two of
Feydeau's contemporaries, Alfred Hennequin and Alfred Delacour, whose
1875 farce, here skilfully adapted by Reggie Oliver, is equally
frantic, equally absurd, equally funny and perhaps even better staged
and performed.
Like all farces of
the genre its plot defies summary but is built on a bunch of people who
must never meet being put in a situation in which meeting seems
inevitable, and if there's some adultery or attempted adultery in the
mix, so much the better.
So, after the
situation is set up, the central act of Once Bitten has four men, two
mistresses, two wives, one mother-in-law, one vindictive servant, one
mad policeman and one vicious dog all racing in and out of doors or
hiding under furniture to avoid each other.
And in one of
director Sam Walters' strokes of pure genius, there are no actual
doors, but rather a sound effects engineer who provides the noises
precisely on cue as the cast mime opening and closing where the doors
would be.
It's touches like
that that make this evening a total delight even above and beyond the
comedy of the script. It goes without saying that director Walters is a
master of theatre-in-the-round, and in the rare moment that you're not
laughing at the play, you can pause to appreciate how smoothly he
choreographs the frantic action and effortlessly he seems to move the
actors about so that sightlines are never blocked.
As the poor shnook
at the centre of the action - one of the husbands, with one of the
mistresses, one of the wives and all of the mother-in-law - David
Antrobus is a study in mounting panic as we watch him fall haplessly
into and then struggle mightily to pull himself out of the hole of
seemingly inevitable exposure.
Briony McRoberts is
great fun as the mother-in-law from hell, Richard Durden is droll as a
man prone to falling asleep whenever he sits down, and a special round
of applause is earned by the SFX maestro Sophie Acreman.
Once again the 20
minute train ride from Waterloo to Richmond proves more than worth it
as this delightful little theatre delivers up a holiday gem.
Gerald Berkowitz
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Review - Once Bitten - Orange Tree 2010
