WHEN this Alan Bennett play began I wasn’t sure what to make of it. When it ended, I still wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Set in the 1970s in the Hove district of Brighton, it was a strange affair.
Even as we entered the theatre to take our seats we were greeted by a Mrs Overall-type character who cheerfully dusted off audience members’ bags and shoes.
This funny, down to earth, character Mrs Swabb was played by Sue Barker – the charlady/narrator in the production.
The beach-themed set came complete with seagulls suspended from the ceiling accompanied by sounds of the sea.
Oddly, the set somehow doubled up as a lounge and a doctor’s surgery with the cast going in and out via three separate beach hut doors.
In true farce-style there were misunderstandings which led to various cheating shenanigans. While there were funny laugh out loud moments, the script is also laced with some seriously disturbing observations about our existence and our impending death.
The story blatantly implies women are only attractive to men if they have an ample bosom – and are preferably not fat or old.
The female actors bravely put up with their boobs being jiggled and ogled over by male characters. Well, the play was first produced in 1973.
Just like in pantos, characters fall in love and get married practically as soon as they meet. Trousers are up and down like nobody’s business and you have to concentrate really hard to keep up with who’s doing what with who and why.
In the meantime a cast member rides onto the set on a bike, then off again, while characters burst into a monologue, poem or song every now and then too.
The story centres around the tired marriage of Arthur and Muriel Wicksteed.
Arthur (Ian Davies) was superb, while Muriel (Carol Talbot) gave a suitably over the top, hammy performance.
Both characters are longing for exciting love affairs, with their ineffectual, hapless, hypochondriac, grown-up son Dennis – effectively played by new member Callum Griffiths – is pursued for all the wrong reasons by beautiful Felicity Rumpers, played brilliantly by new member Grace Moody.
There was an extraordinarily fast-paced interrogation scene under a spotlight which took place between Canon Throbbing (Andrew Brennan) and Sir Percy Shorter (John Westoby).
There are ridiculous side plots about boobs, old loves, spurned loves and suicide.
Directed by Charlie Barker cast members, without exception, gave their all to their parts ably supported by the off-stage crew.
The play ended with the cast pulling off a choreographed dance to Tina Turner’s Nutbush City Limits.
The Latin Habeus Corpus is a legal term meaning to correct violations of personal liberty. I will leave scholars far more learned than I to apply the term to this bonkers play.