Jack Absolute Flies Again
Jack Absolute Flies Again springs from the pens of Richard Bean and Oliver Chris of One Man, Two Guvnors fame, who have taken Sheridan’s comedy of manners The Rivals as their inspiration and reset it during WWII. Directed by Emily Burns, the play takes place at Malaprop Mansions, temporarily housing a Second World War RAF office and unseen plane field.
After an aerial dog fight, Pilot Officer Jack Absolute flies home to win the heart of his old flame, Lydia Languish. Back on British soil, Jack's advances soon turn to anarchy when the young heiress demands to be loved on her own, very particular, terms.
The National Theatre have wisely chosen a farce in these times of COVID and inflation. This may or may not be intentional, however there are parallels between the hope at the end of World War II and the calming down of COVID together with the hope for a brighter financial future, or perhaps that is a little too tenuous.
The dialogue and banter touch on serious topics too, such as feminism, class, foreign recruits, and the notion that life can be suddenly cut short - that every second should be relished.
Jack Absolute Flies Again bears a great resemblance to The Rivals; the basic plot, the characters breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience and Mrs Malaprop’s misuse of the English language, which created the term ‘malapropism’.
However, Bean and Chris’s play also features an emotional pull at the heart strings at the end, which, although refreshing after almost two hours of comedy, is too late. In addition, while the lines are funny, one almost gets the feeling that the actors are trying a little too hard.
The production is lavishly set on a thrust stage with back projection which features heavily in the air battle scenes. A bedroom, lounge room and bunkhouse emerge from Malaprop Mansions and the building next door seamlessly giving us many sets for the price of one.
A nice touch occurs at the beginning, interval, and end of the play - a giant fighter plane with propellor whirling drops from the flies to frame the set.
A major element of this production is the breakneck pace of the dialogue, which is to the play’s advantage as the dialogue is no more “than the sum of its laughs” (Andrzej Lukowski on Time Out). There is no real message until the end. Timing is everything in farce and this cast know exactly how long to wait for a laugh and how long to let it linger.
Laurie Davidson gives Jack boundless energy and cunning, so much so that his character gets lost in his own schemes. Natalie Simpson’s Lydia Languish is everything we expect from the emancipated woman until she finds true love, only then to have it ripped away from her.
Kerry Howard’s Lucy the maid steals every scene, setting up the plot and confiding in the audience while Caroline Quentin’s Mrs Malaprop mutilates the English language with some extremely ribald insertions, “Eight years ago my husband died, and I become a window!” being one of her tamer lines. She is also a dab hand playing the ukulele and has a marvellous singing voice.
Peter Forbes’ Sir Anthony Absolute could be straight out of Dad’s Army with his stuffiness and low opinion of women who read.
The cast is completed by Kevin Fletcher’s Dudley Scunthorpe, the well-built mechanic, Helena Wilson and Jordan Metcalfe’s Julia and Roy, the newlyweds, James Corrigan’s Bob Acres, the Australian not known for his intellect, Akshay Sharan’s Bikram “Tony” Khattri, the would-be poet and Tim Steed’s Brian Coventry, the closet homosexual.
There are a number of fabulous scenes including the meddling maid Lucy and the love letters she connivingly mis-delivers; a wonderful scene featuring the second comedy couple, Roy and Julia, expressing the illogicality of jealousy; Mrs Malaprop’s wooing of Sir Anthony Absolute; Jack’s impersonation of Dudley, complete with a moustache that transfers upon kissing and a great dance scene between Jack and Lydia and the cast.
It may not be Sheridan but Jack Absolute Flies Again is a madcap 1940s romp guaranteed to give you a good laugh and maybe a tear or two!
Barry Hill
Photography: Brinkhoff Mogenburg
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