Creaking comedy

10 April 2012

Mocking the Germans may have a proud lineage in English comedy but, even so, it's hard not to feel a smidgen of discomfort at the relentless stereotyping that occurs in Philip King's 1945 farce.

You can't help but question whether there is a significant difference between the crude references to the war made by English football fans, for which they are rightly castigated, and the shameless mockery of Nazi salutes in this blatant piece of theatrical patriotism.

Still, get past this and there is much to enjoy in Douglas Hodge's otherwise harmlessly silly revival of this quaint, very English farce. Several familiar caricatures of English comedy make appearances: a string of vicars - some genuine (Nicholas Rowe's Rev Lionel Toop), some not; an escaped German POW (Adrian Fear); a buffoonish Army general (Jo Stone-Fewings); a glamorous wife (Nancy Carroll); a drunken village spinster (Julie Legrand) and a cheeky, all-seeing, sharp-tongued housemaid (Natalie Grady).

The plot, unhinged as it is, takes a while to get going but, once it does, unravels at an alarming rate. POWs are mistaken for husbands, actors mistaken for vicars, the village crone gets increasingly blathered and cupboards, chests and doors open and close like hyperactive jack-intheboxes.

Several jokes in the first half creak louder than a farm gate but as events become increasingly preposterous, so the comedy becomes correspondingly sublimely surreal. The acting is top notch; the comic timing pitch perfect. It's just a shame so much feels so horribly out of date.

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