A new comedy act recently opened on the West End starring Ralph Fiennes and I was lucky enough to score a preview ticket on this Saturday just gone. As expected, it was a full house and so the laughter filled the entire theatre. The play, best described as a bit of a black comedy involves four actors and actresses on a very simple set and focused around the story of their children getting into a fight and all the craziness that ensues to resolve it.
Based on some of the topics covered and the amount of swearing, the writer obviously wrote this script relatively recently and at least seems to have some French origins although it also includes plenty of the classic understated British humour, focused on many suggestive hints and plenty of sarcastic comments.
We had perfectly centred seats that was close enough to see some of the very visual and physical parts of the comedy theatre without being too close to be covered by it (you have to go and see it to know what I mean). I’d highly recommend any people who have a sense of humour (or at least appreciate comedy) to go and see this if you’re seeing any West End show.
Hi Patrick – I saw the play a week after you did, and just wanted to clarify one point. The play was orginally written in French and was translated into English, which accounts for the distinctly French portions of the play (e.g. the names of the characters, the food and the places referred to). The fact that there are British elements of understated humour is attributable to the talent of the actors, as well as to the ability of the translator, Christopher Hampton, who also translated Yasmina Reza’s first play, Art, into English. Just thought you might like to know!