Perth Theatre
Four stars
Casablanca has come on a bit since Morag Fullarton first adapted Michael Curtiz’s classic 1942 movie vehicle for Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman for the stage back in 2010. That was for a matinee slot as part of Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint lunchtime theatre season in Glasgow.
Fullarton’s bite size three-actor version stayed faithful to the essence of the film’s Second World War set romance while taking an irreverent approach that was part homage and not quite pastiche, as intrigue and in-jokes sat side by side in a show that travelled the world.
Fullarton’s scaled up revival opens out onto design coordinator Martha Steed’s faithfully recreated Rick’s Bar, where we’re greeted by singer Jerry Burns’s French cabaret Chanteuse. Accompanied by pianist Hilary Brooks, Burns sets the tone with a short set of torch song evergreens.
This leaves plenty of time for actors to prepare, as Simon Donaldson, Kevin Lennon and Clare Waugh join in as if warming up in the green room before action is called. Once in the zone, each double up like Billy-o as they attempt to inhabit both the script’s roll call of characters and the Hollywood legends that originally played them. All in just seventy-five minutes.
To say much fun is had with this is something of an understatement, as Donaldson plays Bogie playing Rick, while Waugh doubles up as Bergman’s Ilsa and Nazi Major Strasser while not so secretly hankering after a Singin’ in the Rain routine. Lennon, meanwhile, manages to navigate an interplay between French police captain Renault and his prey Victor Laszlo while somehow playing both.
As much of an actors’ fantasy wish fulfilment this makes for, Fullarton resists the temptation to let loose a Play That Went Wrong style indulgence. The knowing winks are here alright, but as the action pauses for film trivia breaks show, they never lose sight of the original material, which is channelled with a devotion only those long smitten with the film can muster. After more than a decade, it’s a love that’s still requited in a show that even after all these years is still lookin’ at you kid.
The Herald, March 23rd 2023
ends
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