Theatre Royal, Glasgow
3 stars
Few understand the international language of cuckoldry quite like the French. This still doesn’t fully explain, however, why a fifty year old farce playing on the conceit of a then fledgling jet-age, some casual lounge-core misogyny and the exotic appeal of tri-lingual trolley dollies should still have commercial cache. Especially, one might think, in today’s era of ecologically unsound budget flights weighed down with the flotsam and jetsom of stag and hen weekends. Yet, since its 2007 revival, Marc Carmoletti’s Paris mis-match has continued to rack up air-miles.
This economy class touring version features a cast familiar from equally frothy TV fare and a dazzle of retro-kitsch production design that would probably give Alan Whicker a head-ache watching this gossamer-light romp from a time when technology was reaching for the sky. Which is why swinging architect Bernard’s meticulously scheduled liaisons with three different stewardesses on stop-over comes such a cropper of unexpected arrivals and departures, as he, his mousy cousin Robert and maid Bertha attempt to keep Gloria, Gabriella and Gretchen out of each other’s way.
The text-book consequences that follow in Matthew Warchus’ production are delivered breezily enough by a cast led by Hotel Babylon’s Martin Marquez as Bernard, while the trio of Sarah Jayne Dunn (the third ex Hollyoakser to grace Scotland’s commercial stages in a fortnight), Thaila Zucchi and Josephine Butler overload the cultural stereotyping with abandon. The social and sexual mores being explored, however, merely tap into a projected sense of nostalgia for an allegedly more glamorous age, something the play was never about. Maybe longing for a comedy about the way we live now is a flight of fancy too far.
The Herald, March 26th 2009
ends
3 stars
Few understand the international language of cuckoldry quite like the French. This still doesn’t fully explain, however, why a fifty year old farce playing on the conceit of a then fledgling jet-age, some casual lounge-core misogyny and the exotic appeal of tri-lingual trolley dollies should still have commercial cache. Especially, one might think, in today’s era of ecologically unsound budget flights weighed down with the flotsam and jetsom of stag and hen weekends. Yet, since its 2007 revival, Marc Carmoletti’s Paris mis-match has continued to rack up air-miles.
This economy class touring version features a cast familiar from equally frothy TV fare and a dazzle of retro-kitsch production design that would probably give Alan Whicker a head-ache watching this gossamer-light romp from a time when technology was reaching for the sky. Which is why swinging architect Bernard’s meticulously scheduled liaisons with three different stewardesses on stop-over comes such a cropper of unexpected arrivals and departures, as he, his mousy cousin Robert and maid Bertha attempt to keep Gloria, Gabriella and Gretchen out of each other’s way.
The text-book consequences that follow in Matthew Warchus’ production are delivered breezily enough by a cast led by Hotel Babylon’s Martin Marquez as Bernard, while the trio of Sarah Jayne Dunn (the third ex Hollyoakser to grace Scotland’s commercial stages in a fortnight), Thaila Zucchi and Josephine Butler overload the cultural stereotyping with abandon. The social and sexual mores being explored, however, merely tap into a projected sense of nostalgia for an allegedly more glamorous age, something the play was never about. Maybe longing for a comedy about the way we live now is a flight of fancy too far.
The Herald, March 26th 2009
ends
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