Boeing-Boeing

This charming French farce was first presented at the Apollo Theatre, London in 1962, and revived in 2007 at the Comedy Theatre with Roger Allam, Frances de la Tour and Mark Rylance among the cast. It takes us back to the days when flying was glamorous, and many a young girl’s dream was to become an air hostess. Director Jeff Wightwick says it is one of his favourite plays, and I can see why. Now it allows us to wallow in nostalgia for those heady days of comfortable and easy flying, with uncrowded airports with ‘waving bases’, substantial meals even on short haul flights, and no endless queues for security!

As so often with the Nomads, their ‘Tuesday Crew’ came up with a wonderful, evocative set, with lots of doors, arches, and marvellous modern artwork adorning the walls – very appropriate for ‘man about town’ bachelor Bernard, who is obviously not short of a penny or two, and enjoying his fabulous Paris apartment.

Bernard has developed a splendid lifestyle, receiving regular visits from his 3 fiancées, who are all extremely glamorous stewardesses from 3 different airlines: TWA (was it?); Alitalia and Lufthansa. He has a copy tucked away in a drawer of all the flight schedules, to make sure there can be no timetable clashes and embarrassing or even disastrous meetings. He is cool, calm and collected.

He receives a visit one day from an old friend Robert, who he has not seen for years. He rather cockily explains his 3-fiancée system to the flabbergasted Robert and tries to persuade him that this is the only way to live. Robert, who has just begun to think of settling down, but as yet has no ladyfriend in sight, is bemused.  Bernard offers Robert a room for the duration of his stay in Paris.

Gloria, the American fiancée makes an appearance, Robert is extremely impressed at this stunning lady. Once Gloria departs, Gabriella appears. As she goes, Gretchen does. So far so good.

 I have to say, I was much impressed by the way these three actresses managed to become ladies from each of those nations. Not only were their accents wonderful, but their whole persona became American, Italian or German. Great work from Sophie Gray as the sassy, coy young American, who knew exactly what she wanted from a husband and what her role in the marriage should be; from Helen Teasdale, as the oh so passionate Gabriella, full of flamboyant gestures, sing song intonation, and with a terrible, almost frightening, temper; and from Melanie Dunn, as the much calmer, rather pleasant Gretchen, who was so embarrassed when she flung her arms round and kissed the unsuspecting newspaper-reading Robert, mistaking him for Bernard. She had a temper too, we found out later. Great casting from Director Jeff Wightwick. I wonder how those ladies prepared those accents, pretty difficult to keep it up, I should think, but they managed it so well!

Bernard’s life was managed by his housekeeper Berthe, totally unshockable, very French (another good accent from Annabelle Farrell too), resigned to the comings and goings and constant bedmaking, the cooking of appropriate foods for each ladyfriend, with a sardonic attitude to this weird arrangement. Another good performance here.

Geoff Rose-Michael played the suave, sophisticated Bernard, calmly assured in his dealings with his 3 ladies, and well able to deal with his sometimes tetchy housekeeper. Until the schedules changed unexpectedly, when he became a gibbering wreck, shaking and stuttering, jumping up and down in his panic, looking helplessly towards his friend Robert to get him out of all these fixes. A very fine performance from Geoff indeed.

Dear Robert, who we all felt so much sympathy for, the naïve, straightforward young man from the provinces, and man with little experience of the female half of society, such a nice fellow, was played to perfection by Matt Weaver. He found happiness in the end, surprisingly, with Gretchen, though I doubt he relished the idea of all that sauerkraut he might have to get used to!

The feverish choreography of the second half was a joy to behold, it was all so hilarious. Great direction from Jeff Wightwick – I wonder if he has any more favourite plays up his sleeve? There is simply nothing to compare with the fun of a good farce!

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