Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford – until 7 March 2020
Reviewed by Terry Genis
3***
On a cold and damp evening the comings and goings of this farce provided a warming glow with quick-fire dialogue. The story switches between the elegant French home of a lawyer, Monsieur Duchotel, and his wife Leontine, and the love nest in a Parisian apartment rented by the family friend Doctor Moricet. These provide the settings for the revelation that Duchotel’s hunting trips away are not so innocent and that the ‘bang, bangs’ are not aimed at rabbits and hares, but another ‘prey’. The deceits are exposed in a sequence of wardrobe-hiding, door-slamming and trouser-losing, by a cast of characters that include a spurned husband, a maid, an investigating policeman, an abandoned countess, and a young nephew seeking money to support his student life.
The play is an adaptation of ‘Monsieur Chasse’ by George Feydeau in 1892, and John Cleese’s stage writing debut gives us a touch of Basil and Manuel. The direction by Daniel Buckroyd is fast and Tessa Peake-Jones as Leontine and Tony Gardner as Duchotel exchange lines at a cracking pace.
Wendi Peter is the abandoned Countess, Madame Latour, and as she sings her story, the set is transformed from the drawing room of the Duchotel house to the art nouveau apartment of the Belle Epoch. Stay in your seat in the interval to see the transition in reverse and the magic of the changes.
In real life, infidelity can have bad consequences, but this is a farce after all, and all those ridiculous things occurring are quite good fun.