Richmond Theatre, Richmond – until 27th November 2021
Reviewed by Bobbi Fenton
4****
‘The Good Life’, inspired by the 1975 tv sitcom of the same name, is a hilarious play about the life of an almost ordinary couple living in Surbiton. Tom (Rufus Hound) has a midlife crisis sparked by his 40th birthday, which inspires him and his wife, Barbara (Sally Tatum) to become entirely self-sufficient, creating their own back garden farm. While neighbours and friends Margo (Preeya Kalidas) and her husband Jerry (Dominic Rowan) struggle at first to understand this new lifestyle, they soon experience it hands on when a dinner party at their house turns into a drug fuelled disaster.
Also, let’s not forget the amazing performance of multiple characters by both Nigel Betts and Tessa Churchard. The pair played a whole host of characters throughout the play, from the boss ‘Sir’ and his wife, to a milk woman and a policeman, among others.
The perfectly designed set consisted of two walls that turned around to show the settings of the Goods’ kitchen, and the Leadbetters’ living room and dining room, and included some very exciting pyrotechnics.
The show really captures the essence of a 1970’s sitcom, even for audience members that have never seen the original tv programme. I am sure that the younger audience members left the theatre wanting to find the original sitcom online. It is filled with perfectly timed jokes and innuendos that kept the audience chuckling along throughout.
The show ends with three exciting announcements from the Goods’, the Leadbetters’, and the Boss ‘Sir (Nigel Betts) and his wife (Tessa Churchard), which feel like a very satisfying end to the rollercoaster of events in the show. It is a wonderfully funny show, which will have you in stitches.