Creating comedy out of funny man's death
TOM Conti both stars and directs in the world premiere of Wife After Death, the new comedy by BAFTA winner and author of Rising Damp, Eric Chappell (Theatre Royal, Brighton, March 17-20).
Obviously there's a particular pleasure in creating a role for the first time - but as Tom says the actual acting process is very much the same.
Far more important is the fact that Eric's script is just so gloriously funny.
"It helps that it is a such a very nice idea, the idea of what happens next when a comic like Eric Morecambe or Ronnie Barker dies, how it affects the people close," Tom says.
"The writer suddenly finds that the rent has disappeared, and all sorts of things start to crawl out of the woodwork."
Dave Thursby was a highly successful television comedian, a national treasure, a devoted husband, a model client for his agent and a staunch friend to his faithful gag writer, Harvey.
But when Dave dies unexpectedly, his close companions are bereft. There's now a huge void in their lives, and, worse still, some of them may be out of a job. Unless, of course, the repeats, television specials, biographies and newspaper tell-alls can fill the vacuum.
But as family and friends gather for his funeral, it turns out they know less about him than they thought. A series of revelations uncovers some home truths. Choking back the tears and protesting their love for Dave, the mourners set about exploiting his comic legacy for all it is worth.
Playing Harvey as well as directing the piece, Tom is well placed to judge: "Eric is the master. He knows what is fundamentally funny. It's not new humour. It's not old humour. It's just humour, and if people play it right, the construction of the whole play is so solid."
With Chappell, there's no chance of an actor suddenly wondering where the middle of the second Act has suddenly gone. As for the laughter, Tom in reading a script goes for the simple test: if it makes him laugh, it should work: "I guess you get a nose for it."
Which doesn't mean that you don't occasionally get a stinker. Tom confesses to just two in his long and distinguished career - which is an impressively small number.
"One was a play called An Italian Straw Hat. It was a new adaptation, and it just simply didn't work.
"I had read it through and thought it was quite funny, and then at the read-through we just knew it was suddenly sinking. It was a nightmare.
"After that I decided that I would never ever do a play again without reading it aloud.
"The exception was a new Arthur Miller play. I thought 'This is Arthur Miller, it will be fine!'"
It wasn't. As Tom says, you can hardly go up to Arthur Miller and say 'Hey, Arthur, there are real problems in your second Act'.
It got terrible notices, and the play closed after three weeks. Everything about it was wrong.
I was ten years too young. The woman playing my girlfriend was 15 years too old.
"You just have to move on. I survived, but you are pretty shell-shocked for a couple of weeks after it.
"But that's what this business is like. You can't know how it is going to be."
And the basic fact is that an actor can never salvage flawed material - though conversely, a terrific play might just lift a poor performance, Tom says.
Alongside Tom, the cast features Diane Fletcher, Royce Mills, Diana Marchment, Elizabeth Payne and Nina Young.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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