DEAD FUNNY. To 21 January.

Leeds

DEAD FUNNY
by Terry Johnson

West Yorkshire Playhouse (Courtyard Theatre) To 21 January 2006
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu & Sat 2pm
Audio-described 7 Jan 2pm, 13 Jan
BSL Signed 6 Jan
Captioned 11 Jan
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 0113 213 7700
www.wyp.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 December

A comic mix that still has some lumps.
It would be nice to report that Leeds’ West Yorkshire Playhouse had a trio of winners this winter. But, fine as both the major musical Alice and young people’s show The Magic Paintbrush are, this Courtyard show comes over as efficient yet lacklustre. Terry Johnson cleverly uses comedy as a contrast for humour in a play where suburban celebrants of TV funnymen both fracture internally as a society and personally show none of the self-awareness that should underline humour.

It’s only frustrated wife Eleanor, 39 and desperate for a baby, or failing that some sign of affection from disaffected doctor-husband Richard, who shows any wit. And that’s often caustic in response to his coldness. Meanwhile Brian is unaware his sexual identity’s clear to all, while Lisa and Nick live in a constricted world of failure.

Matthew Lloyd’s production is aware of all the tensions and plays them well enough. What’s missing is the sense of deep devotion these characters have to the Benny Hill, Morecambe and Wise and other routines they can recreate in loving detail while not having a scruple of original wit among the lot of them.

Only Eleanor stands outside this, and even she’s involved when the slapstick begins as real relationships invade a memorial evening for Benny and by chance she’s revealed to have joined in Hill’s sexist comedy as a last attempt to interest her husband.

Nicolas Tennant is risky casting here and it doesn’t come off. He has none of the bristling edge David Haig brought to the part originally. Tennant’s way is more depressive; he seems to shrug Eleanor off rather than reject her forcefully. To the end, it’s lack of will rather than outright coldness that propels him.

That pushes the need for energy on to Lysette Anthony whose mix of misery and patient desperation successfully emerges from the anger. Eleanor’s emotional self-exposure to her husband isn’t in doubt. But the slapstick that results from revelations about relationships within the group has neither the surface humour of clowning nor the underlying desperation arising from driven emotions.

Eleanor: Lysette Anthony
Richard: Nicolas Tennant
Brian: Derek Hutchinson
Lisa: Natalie Walter
Nick: Andrew Frame

Director: Matthew Lloyd
Designer: Simon Higlett
Lighting: Johanna Town
Sound: Mic Pool

2006-01-06 10:14:12