Charley’s Aunt @ the Royal Exchange Theatre

Charley’s Aunt
By Brandon Thomas
Royal Exchange Theatre, 28 June 2010

Oliver Gomm as Lord Fancourt Babberley. Photo - Jonathan Keenan

Such a play, and in such an uplifting production as this, will be rightly treasured by the granny tranny troupe and their many fans and lovers.

The play moves along at a speedy (one might almost say jildy) pace: romance, intrigue, coincidence and comedy are all to be found here, and relished and enjoyed.

Oliver Gomm, terrific as the eponymous aunt (and some Lord), gave the outstanding performance of the night: a proper rum ‘un and no mistaking it.

If a nice line in priggish, yet sometimes sycophantic and ingratiating, and always ever so slightly hypocritical guardians of young girls is to your fancy, then you’ll also enjoy Malcolm Rennie’s fine turn as Stephen Spettigue, the guardian of one or two beloveds.  He pulls it off to a T.

Not unnaturally, perhaps, the play brought to mind P.G. Wodehouse: it has the same jokey portrayal of venality, stupidity and crass conceit among the upper classes.  But I learnt after that Charley’s Aunt was premiered in 1892, a decade or so before Wodehouse wrote his first novel.  So any influence went towards the creator of Bertie Wooster.

Both Russell Dixon as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and Oliver Gomm here have, by-the-by, performed a sterling social service.  They have shown us that granny trannies have no need to lurk in the shadows and the supermarket corridors.  No, they should be out and about (on a bus pass, no doubt) and proud.  Today Manchester, tomorrow the world!

Charley’s Aunt is at the  Royal Exchange Theatre until 7 August.  Details here.

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Library Theatre Company, 8 June 2010

Photo by Gerry Murray

With this strange and delightful production the Library Theatre, for the moment at any rate, loses its home.

 It will leave the current venue, where it has been performing plays for over half a century, once the current run of The Importance of Being Earnest comes to an end.

Little, precious little, is taken seriously in Wilde’s great play; it can hardly keep a straight, or indeed an earnest face.  Despite this jollity – and it almost goes without saying that it is a supremely entertaining play – there is an unflinchingly subversive reach on show here.  Everything is mocked, all is fair game: Wilde’s wit shoots down all the conventions and core values of his age.  And in doing so, he makes us smile.

The masterstroke of this production is to cast Russell Dixon as Lady Bracknell: he is superb, a queerly arch gatekeeper.  To have a man in the role of this senior, authoritative ma’am – and for it to be unremarked upon by Algernon and the rest – casts a most peculiar light on proceedings

You knew where you were with Lady Bracknell, or at least you thought you did.  She was the most strait-laced of Wilde’s creations.  She was the one who pulled all the other characters into line, and into happy marriages.  Now that we discover that she is a genderqueer matron, her moral compass seems decidedly dodgy.  Or off kilter somewhat.  Something is happening, but you don’t quite know what it is.

It is fun, though.

The doors have not closed quite yet, but it is clear that the Library Theatre has saved the best till last. 

The Importance of Being Earnest is showing at the Library Theatre until 3 July.  Details here.  Don’t, for the life of you, miss it.