Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience

The hotel restaurant of the old British TV hit, Faulty Towers, is perfect creation for this madcap Dining Experience, with lookalikes Basil, Sybil and Manuel serving our meals with their signature appalling service. 

After 25 years, there are now half a dozen versions of this show in hotels and theatre spaces around the world, yet with its vaudevillian carry-on,  Faulty remains a distinctly British Experience.

It’s well travelled in Australia and is right at home at this old-style hotel in Sydney’s CBD where a tasty, modest three course meal comes with interactive entertainment and lots of silly business.  Thankfully some real staff help get the food out as Manuel, the Spanish waiter with faulty English, endlessly misunderstands Basil’s angry instructions. “Roll on plate” shouts Basil in exasperation, and Manuel indeed rolls on the plate; “Butt-er” enunciates Basil, and Manuel begins to butt a female diner, and so it goes, through the chaos of these endless puns, collecting soup bowls and chasing an escaped rat. 

Much is improvised and there’s no credit to any writer, who could have brought some added wit of language to the shouting and buffoonery.

Matthew Robson is suitably tall and pompous as Basil, unleashing insults to the audience, and even capturing John Cleese’s infamous gestapo strut.  Adrian Espulso is inexhaustible as Manuel, and Monique Lewis Reynolds bustles perfectly as Sybil, as she feuds with Basil and finally whacks him endlessly with a dead fish which ends stuck up his bottom. 

This Sybil is a vociferous flirt (far more than the original), with a keen eye for young men in the audience, and an expert hand in winning audience involvement, especially with those unlucky enough to have birthdays. 

It’s all convivial fun and my fellow diners joined in enthusiastically.

Martin Portus

For touring dates visit https://www.interactivetheatre.com.au/events/aus-events/

Images from the London production. Photogapher: Jane Hobson