On the Razzle

I have a confession.  I have never seen a Tom Stoppard play before and, therefore, come to “On the Razzle” with a totally open mind.  In all honesty, I struggled a little with Act 1.  The audience around me had no such disadvantage and laughed along happily to the antics of the characters.  I think a plot summary is probably essential to give a flavour of the play as I suspect a lot of NODA members will not be familiar with it.  David Nixon plays Herr Zangler, a high class grocer with premises outside Vienna and designs on Mme Knorr (played by Hazel Hutchinson).  She runs a ladies’ outfitters in the city.  He sets off on a visit and whilst he’s away, sends his niece, Marie (Bex Killoran), to stay with her aunt, Miss Blumenblatt (Janet Beakes) in Vienna to avoid the unwanted (by him) overtures of penniless Sonders (Graham Lindup).  He leaves the shop in the hands of his less than trustworthy assistant and apprentice.  Bad idea.  They decide to take advantage of his absence and have an adventure in the big city.

At this point, the story begins to mirror, in part, the plot of “Hello Dolly” involving the shop boys. David Nixon played the slightly ridiculous Zangler with some panache and found himself on stage almost throughout.  He set off in a new quasi-military uniform to impress Mme Knorr (named, I presume, after the stock cubes).  It may be a big city but the shop boys soon bump into their boss and, to avoid detection, disguise themselves as shop manikins in Mme Knorr’s shop-window.  Soon, all the protagonists find themselves in or about the same restaurant.  Grocer’s assistant Weinberl (Robin Jowett) manages to become entangled with one of Mme Knorr’s customers, Frau Fisher (Jill Oakley) who finds herself taking on the guise of his wife. Grocer’s apprentice, Christopher (Fergus Oliver) eventually finds himself impersonating Marie.  The only thing keeping the characters apart is a judiciously placed Chinese screen.  Ian Lockey exhibited a nice line in sexually obsessed coachmen. Don’t ask! Then Marie and Sonders turn up and the shop boys find themselves disguised as niece and suitor.  The whole group, ultimately, descends upon Miss Blumenblatt’s home.

After much confusion, the boys manage to get back to the shop just before Zangler; Sonders comes into a convenient inheritance, making him a suitable suitor; Weinberl and Frau Fisher discover they are already romantic pen friends; Christopher is promoted; Zangler and Mme Knorr perfect their engagement – and everything settles back to normal!

By the beginning of Act 2 I was “in the zone” and found myself engaged with the farcical happenings, the slapstick, the slick double-entendres and malapropisms, the mistaken identities and misdirected orders, and the romantic complications.  The entire cast must be congratulated for their tongue in cheek delivery, straight faces and sometimes necessarily swift movements.  I don’t know about them but I was quite worn out by the time the final curtain fell.  I had, however, enjoyed an amusing evening.

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