Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense

I can remember watching and enjoying the television series of Jeeves and Wooster which was itself adapted from the books by P.G. Wodehouse, so I was intrigued to see how it transferred to the stage with this award-winning adaption by The Goodayle Brothers. Director Helen Thorpe made an adaptation herself by the idea that this was a radio play with Wooster recounting one of his stories to an audience (us). To help him relate this story he enlists the help of Jeeves and two other (male) actors who, between them, take on the persona of at least ten different characters both male and female. The only constant being Bertie himself.

The stage setting is fairly bare but as the action moves from place to place, the cast changing the set, the use of an abundance of props, sound effects, costumes that fly on and off, it all comes together – sort of! Pieces of set falling over, a moustache that wouldn’t stay on - did it matter? Not a bit, the audience loved it and even applauded when that elusive moustache stayed put!

The story, with so much fast paced action going on is really hard to keep track of and is really incidental to the production but suffice to say there is an antique silver cow creamer that various people want, love triangles, odd bits of blackmail, treacherous plots, stolen police helmets and people falling out of windows. Even Bertie says don’t worry the audience won’t know what’s going on!

Nick Stafford as Bertie Wooster delivers a performance of real quality giving us a warm, jovial and likeable character, engaging the audience throughout. James Klech was perfect as Jeeves. His comic timing was excellent and the ability to change from the ludicrous Gussie Fink-Nottle back to straight faced Jeeves in a matter of seconds showed acting excellence. But the same had to be said of Nick Smith and James Macauley who also played the other different characters superbly.There was one moment where James as the agonisingly slow butler Butterfield  reminded me of the famous Julie Walters sketch “Two Soups”.

Inspirational direction by Helen Thorpe and her wonderful cast must have had an hilarious time in rehearsals. Together they gave us much needed laughter, especially at the moment! Spiffing good fun.

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