Two Into One

Ray Cooney’s farce Two Into One, set in the early eighties at the height of Margaret Thatcher’s reign, certainly brings back many memories of the time, for those of us that were around then! It concerns a junior government minister who is planning a little afternoon delight with one of the PM’s secretaries while staying with his wife in a Westminster hotel. He makes the mistake of entrusting the arrangements to his genial but bumbling PPS. The early return of his wife from the theatre, a suspicious hotel manager, an all-seeing waiter and a vice-hunting Labour MP all add to the confusion. It's a fabulous script and every aspect of farce is there: multiple doors to slam, misunderstandings, confusions of identities, and people (virtually everyone in this case) losing their clothes.

As I’ve come to expect with HIADS, the set was splendid. Well designed, managing to portray two adjacent hotel suites and accommodate the required six doors, and well built – standing up to the rigours of much door slamming with hardly a tremble. It was well dressed with props and furniture – huge credit to the set design, construction, and props people. Lighting too was good, as were the numerous sound effects. Scene changes by cast and crew, were slick and unobtrusive and clever use was made of curtains to hide the main set and portray the hotel reception. Costumes throughout were well chosen and appropriate for the period.

Dafydd Modig was splendid as the philandering politician, becoming more and more bewildered by the confusion, and Laura Duncan gave a charismatic and convincing performance as his frustrated wife looking for a little diversion of her own. Scott Hawley, demonstrating great comic timing, excelled as the unfortunate PPS George Pigden. He unwittingly started the confusion but later seemed to relish becoming embroiled in it. Tom Hudson was spot on as the Hotel Manager, dismayed at the behaviour of his hotel’s guests, while Jack Smith really brought the character of the all-seeing Russian waiter to life, maintaining his authentic sounding accent well throughout.

Debbie Wigg was the epitome of a zealous reforming Northern Labour MP and Grace Campbell gave a warmth and innocence to the MP’s mistress Jennifer, despite her scheming to get her husband out of the way. Her ability to fold herself up into the trolley was also rather impressive! Lucas Bradshaw as Jennnifer’s husband Edward ably showed himself to be the real innocent in all the scheming, and his total bewilderment at the situation in which he found himself was well portrayed. Solid support was given by John Duncan as the dour receptionist and Pam Day as the sparky Spanish chamber maid.                    

Farce is not a genre for the faint-hearted. Timing and pace are key and the writer, himself a contemporary master of the genre, said that this was the most difficult of his farces to put on. However, Director Tony Johnson and his cast made it look dead easy, setting the pace nicely through act one, as the chaos and confusion gradually gather, and then allowing it to burst out into full-on mayhem in act two as the play comes to its delirious climax. Tony has also added in some nice little moments of slapstick comedy and, with a script full of jokes, we the audience could not fail to have a joyous evening.

My favourite line was the very last: "I think this is the end", delivered so adroitly by Scott Hawley, as the plot had become so complicated, no one could possibly resolve it! Cue tremendous applause from a well-satisfied audience.

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