Where There's a Will

by Georges Feydeau

At the Kingston Rose

Peter Hall's production of Where There's a Will for the English Touring Theatre, which opened at Kingston Rose last week, was the second of Peter's productions I've seen in the past few months featuring full period costume and sets. Nothing wrong with this, of course, but ironic given the number of times I have sat in the shell of the theatre listening to Peter declaring how the Kingston Rose would be dedicated to making drama to fill the space, and had no need of sets and props.

But as Amanda pointed out, you need doors to do a farce! Or indeed, in this case, a balcony.

Feydeau's biography is almost a cliché for a comic writer. Early success at the age of 24, made a good marriage, sustained success made him the most successful writer of the French belle époque, he built up a major art collection, had a reputation for high living. However his marriage collapsed, he lost money on the stock exchange and he surrendered to depression for many years before dying syphilis-provoked madness at the age of 59.

Feydeau in many ways defined farce, both by making the door the essential tool, the barrier and the entrance, the unexpected opening the inexplicable closure, and also in the essentials of lust and lies. The plot here is simple enough. Ribadier is Angele's second husband. The first having been a serial philanderer, Angele is determined that number two will not go the same way. Accordingly plagues her husband with her jealousy, and lays siege to his privacy. Ribadier, however, has his own method which is allowing him to have the wife of a local wine merchant as his mistress.  Add to the mix Thommereux, a previous suitor of Angele's who has just returned from the East (where he hid to escape his lust for Angele) and the randy house servants and you have all the necessary elements for a night of serious comedy.

Sara Stewart is quite superb as Angele.  One moment a jealous harridan, the next swooning in her husband's arms, not that you believe she ever lets her guard down. Charles Edwards plays the pompous and so-sophisticated ass Ribadier with suitable aplomb, while Tony Gardner's portrayal of the camp, incompetent clown Thommereux is highly entertaining. He too is a lustful lover, but fails entirely whether he strives to do the decent thing, or to capture his intended prey. The purely comic turns are all excellent, Nelly Harker and Jason Thorpe play the below-stairs witnesses whose own lust gets muddled up with their masters with great spirit but perhaps the wronged husband Savinet, brilliantly portrayed by Teddy Kempner is the comic star. Quite how he can arrive at the house threatening to kill the master and end up selling him brandy is just wonderful. He is not at all vexed by his wife's affair, only whether or not people know of it.

There are no great complex messages or morals in Where there's a Will. That marriage across the years of the belle époque was a matter of status and public perception, that most people will lie and deceive to gain their lustful way are, perhaps not great insights. Nonetheless, it is entertaining and satisfying faire; prigs are pricked, lies unravel, chickens hurtle home to do what chickens do. Splendidly played by all, wonderfully entertaining, but not a great deal to talk about afterwards!

Where There's a Will is at the Rose of Kingston until February 14th, then on tour with ETT.

www.rosetheatrekingston.org

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