Review – Drop the Dead Donkey – The Reawakening! Festival Theatre, Chichester, 22nd February 2024

Posted on February 26, 2024 by therealchrisparkle

Unless you’re the super-youthful sort, you’ll probably remember Drop the Dead Donkey as the much-loved TV sitcom that ran from 1990 to 1998. Set in the studios of GlobeLink News, it was part newsroom-parody and part scathing satire; not only of the politicians of the day but also of the news industry itself. I remember it being highly popular; but for some reason Mrs Chrisparkle and I never watched it. So when it was announced that the old GlobeLink team were coming back to relive the good times in a UK tour, there were swathes of nostalgic delight around the country – but not chez nous. Nevertheless, our Chichester theatregoing companions Lord and Lady Prosecco, and Professor and Mrs Plum were keen to dip their toes in the nostalgia, and who were we to deny them that pleasure?

The premise is that Gus, the old GlobeLink boss, has taken charge at the brand new news channel, Truth News. Who better to staff the new station than all the old hands he used to work with? One by one we are reunited with editor George, deputy editor Dave, reporter – now newsreader – Damien, newsreader Sally, assistant editor Helen, and HR diva Joy. They are joined by intern “weathergirl” Rita and investigative journalist Mairead, and together they are tasked with getting Truth News off the ground and producing its first broadcasts.

This isn’t the first time a stage show has been created out of a television programme. Far from it. And usually, I have to say, it doesn’t do as well as the original. I remember seeing The Comedians at the London Palladium back in 1972; a ground-breaking TV programme as far as showing stand-up comedy was concerned, but it felt tedious watching it live. In recent years, there have been a couple of outings for stage versions of Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister, TV series par excellence, but frankly dreadful on stage. Would the same fate befall a stage version of Drop the Dead Donkey?

The production looks great. Peter McKintosh’s set is the total embodiment of a brand spanking new flashy news set, all high-tech gadgetry and glistening chrome and steel. Peter Mumford’s lighting is spot on too, as are the costumes. A screen above the stage is used at times rapidly to scroll tweets of reaction to Truth News’ output – good and bad. It’s an effective device, but I was a little disappointed to realise that those tweets actually repeat themselves on a loop a few times – was it really so hard to create a few more well-constructed tweets to display?

Written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who also wrote the original sitcom, the show is updated regularly as real-life breaking news breaks. And there’s no doubt that the biggest laughs from the show come from some blistering up-to-date satirical jibes, deftly delivered by its talented cast. However, unfortunately, occasional blistering one-liners do not a play make, and the overall vibe of the show struck me as a bit lame. Without having the benefit of nostalgia to help my enjoyment of the show, I found it hard to warm to a set-up where the unsympathetic characters hugely outweigh the nice guys. Gus, Damien, Sally, Joy and Mairead are all genuinely awful people! And whilst there may be some Schadenfreude to be gained from seeing them get their come-uppance (if they do) it’s not enough to hang a play on. If the intention of the play is to mirror the birth and early days of GB News it achieves that pretty well; but I wonder if today’s news industry is so savage in its manipulation of our minds and peddling of its own agenda, that it’s almost beyond parody. Apart from seeing how the characters spark off each other, there’s very little in the way of “plot”; and I’m sorry to say I thought it had an embarrassingly weak ending.

Fortunately, the production is stuffed with superb actors who bring their characters to life and get every ounce of humour out of the situation they can. Robert Duncan brings delightful bluster to Gus, seemingly completely unaware of how ridiculously pompous he is. Jeff Rawle gives us an excellent George, willing but hesitant, turning everything he touches to dust; and Neil Pearson is full of attitude as the “changed” Dave, specialising in sarcastic asides. In fact, Messrs Rawle and Pearson provide a great double act, dishing out the best of the lines in the show with satisfying relish.

Victoria Wicks imbues the character of Sally with truly ghastly arrogance, as does Susannah Doyle for Joy, but with added sadism. Stephen Tompkinson’s Damien is a troubled soul who doesn’t want to be behind the desk in the studio, Ingrid Lacey’s Helen is a relatively calm oasis in a desert of bigheads, Julia Hills brings great ruthlessness to the character of Mairead and Kerena Jagpal earns our sympathy as the decent Rita having to work alongside this bunch.

I know it’s a cliché, but this is almost the definition of a curate’s egg. Some people were weeping with laughter, others sat in stony silence. If you were a fan of the sitcom, I reckon you’re probably going to be in for a good night. If you weren’t – well, you wouldn’t go to the show anyway! And if you never saw it, I reckon its 50:50 as to how much this show impresses you. The performances are great, it’s the writing that’s debatable. It’s doing amazing business anyway; there was hardly a seat unsold at last Thursday night’s show. The tour continues to Cambridge, Brighton, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Bath, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bromley, Norwich, Liverpool, Newcastle, Woking, Cheltenham, and Canterbury, returning to Richmond in June.

Production photos by Manuel Harlan

Three-sy Does It!

Review – Art, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 16th May 2018

Posted on May 17, 2018 by therealchrisparkle

It was almost 16 years ago that Mrs Chrisparkle and I last saw Yasmina Reza’s award-winning comedy Art; it was at the Whitehall Theatre (now the Trafalgar Studios) and the constantly changing cast at the time consisted of Ben Cross, Michael Gyngell and Sanjeev Bhaskar. Mrs C adored it; I liked it a lot, but I remember thinking that it lost its way halfway through. So I was keen to see how it shapes up to someone in their latish fifties in comparison with their earlyish forties. When I realised it was to be staged in the large Derngate auditorium I wondered if it was a good match; I’d have thought it was much more appropriate for the intimacy of the Royal. But, surprisingly, it works really well on a larger stage; it’s almost as though it gains a grandeur simply by virtue of space.

In case you don’t know – modern art fanatic Serge has bought a painting for 200,000 Francs, and it’s a heck of a lot to pay, even for an Antios, from his 1970s period. The trouble is, the painting is just white. There are a few diagonal lines on it, and a little raised texture, but at the end of the day, it’s just white. Serge is enormously proud of it. He shows it to his friend Marc, a connoisseur of Flemish landscapes and portraits, who describes it as a piece of white shit. He shows it to their third friend Yvan, who’s not a connoisseur at all, who also recognises it as a piece of white shit but doesn’t want to offend Serge, so he tries to see in the painting all those aspects that appeal to the more cultured and experienced Serge. Yvan’s deliberate peace-keeping approach annoys the tetchy Marc; and consequently, their mutual friendship falters on the rocks.

In some regards the play is a fresh slant on The Emperor’s New Clothes, with the problem of whether to tell the pseud Serge that his painting, basically, has nothing on. From such a simple idea, Yasmine Reza (in a beautiful translation by Christopher Hampton) created a very deep and telling play about the nature of friendship, cultural superiority, art versus reason, fact versus fantasy, truth and falsehood, and the power of language. Words like deconstruction become a weapon in the struggle to establish a pecking order between Serge and Marc (Yvan’s already miles behind); the phrase the way she waves away cigarette smoke, for example, becomes a much more interesting sentence than the concept itself.

That all sounds very dry and dusty but the reason this play ran for eight years in the West End is because it is so incredibly funny; and it also lends itself superbly to the strengths of a range of actors, each of whom can develop their characters in a way that suits the individual performer. In a sense (and soz if this sounds pretentious) each character is a blank canvas on which the actor can paint his own personality, providing it falls roughly within the guidelines of Marc = pedantic, Serge = artistically pompous, Yvan = ordinary Everyman. This touring production has a terrific cast, who capture our attention from the start and give three brilliant performances.

Denis Lawson gives a superb performance as the irascible Marc, with a clipped, no-nonsense delivery and the confident air of someone who always sees things in black and white (white mainly in this play). Nigel Havers is hilarious from the start as Serge, with his brilliant facial expressions and desperate need for approval from the others. Stephen Tompkinson’s Yvan is a wholly recognisable account of a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders who frankly couldn’t give a toss about the painting but does care deeply about his friends. All three work together incredibly well.

There’s a scene towards the end that really challenges the audience as to how they feel about a) valuable paintings, b) this particular painting and c) to what extent you would trust your friend to do the right thing. When the friend doesn’t do the right thing, the gasp of horror from the audience is deafening. And then, the scene concludes with the biggest belly laugh of the night. Beautifully performed, and masterfully created by Reza/Hampton.

So how did this shape up, sixteen years since I last saw it? I thought it was brilliant. I got much more out of it this time; I’m not sure if that’s because of the performances or my own greater maturity (no honestly), but whatever, I’d really recommend this show. This Old Vic production has already been on a fairly extensive tour and has just three more stops after Northampton, in Birmingham, Cardiff and Canterbury. You must go!

P. S. By the end of the play I realised that I had become rather attached to the painting. There was something about its texture and essential whiteness that resonated within me. Maybe that Antios was on to something. However, I did see it more as a £29.99 job from the TK Maxx Home department than 200k.