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7 hours ago
2
The Comedy About Spies
Noel Coward Theatre, London
Rating:
Mischief Theatre, the squad down The Play That Goes Wrong, did it again past nighttime with yet different deed for theatreland.
They onslaught drama golden successful their latest caper: a Sixties spy spoof that is similar Johnny English meets Basil Fawlty successful a Piccadilly hotel. It’s bigger, amended and much brilliantly bungling than ever.
Written by and starring Mischief’s 2 Henrys – Lewis and Shields – it near maine successful awe astatine however it’s imaginable to devise thing truthful complicated... and really propulsion it disconnected connected stage.
The thought itself is simple: Russian agents successful London are astir to get clasp of a limb ‘so almighty it could instrumentality down the USA’.
But a ruthless CIA agent, aided by his Brooklyn mom, has been tipped disconnected and means to halt them.
What cipher has counted connected is Bernard (Henry Shields), a baker from Tadworth, aiming to suggest to his uncertain woman Rosemary (Adele James).
Or failing thesp Douglas Woodbead (an orotund Henry Lewis), successful municipality to audition for a caller Bond movie – contempt being champion known arsenic the look of haemorrhoid pick connected TV.
An undercover French farce moving done 4 bugged bedrooms, a lobby, extortion gardens, a assistance shaft and a laundromat, it’s much analyzable than premier fig theory.
A Sixties spy spoof that is similar Johnny English meets Basil Fawlty successful a Piccadilly hotel
Written by and starring Mischief’s 2 Henrys – Lewis and Shields – it near maine successful awe astatine however it’s imaginable to devise thing truthful complicated... and really propulsion it disconnected connected stage
The thought itself is simple: Russian agents successful London are astir to get clasp of a limb ‘so almighty it could instrumentality down the USA’
Yet manager Matt DiCarlo’s astatine 1 constituent virtually ‘floorless’ accumulation is slick arsenic an lipid spill connected an crystal rink.
Chris Leask amuses arsenic Russian spy Sergei; portion Dave Hearn, arsenic his US counterpart, lays connected abseiling and pratfalls.
But it’s the 2 Henrys who bargain the show. Shields, arsenic the baker whose proudest infinitesimal was lasting up to the KGB (Kent Guild of Breadmakers).
And Lewis, arsenic the perpetually defeated yet invincibly resolute histrion who identifies Bond successful his audition arsenic ‘ooh-seven’.
Running astatine 120 minutes, I started counting to spot if it truly was a laughter a minute. Actually, it’s much similar 3 – making it a 360, all-round, head-spinning winner.
The Comedy About Spies runs astatine London’s Noel Coward Theatre until September 5.
English (US) ·