Eastbourne farce - brace yourself for the height of humour!

I’ll come right out and say it: I love a good farce.

There’s nothing better in my view to take your mind off the world’s troubles than to spend two hours or more in a theatre watching a comic romp.

And there’s no doubting Boeing Boeing fulfils that desire from the moment the audience take their seats and see a stage set with multiple doors in an apartment in Paris. You just know those doors are going to be opening and closing with increasing frequency as the play goes on.

The plot involves architect Bernard trying to juggle his three airline hostess fiancées: American Gloria (Isabel Della-Porta), Italian Gabriella (Nathalie Barclay) and German Gretchen (Jessica Dennis). At first his carefully managed timetable works to ensure they are never in his flat at the same time but, this being a farce, that system comes under increasing strain.

The original London production of the play was in 1962 at a time of glamorous international jet travel. Some of the attitudes and national stereotypes now seem outdated leaving little room for the fiancées to develop any sense of identity beyond their uniforms, airline bags, food choices and accents.

Artistic director Michael Cabot said he drew on ‘Del Boy’ from Only Fools and Horses as inspiration for the path of Bernard’s descent from pride to fall. John Dorney’s portrayal as the lead character veered more towards the Basil Fawlty or Mr Bean end of the comic scale as his attempts to keep his three women apart became ever more frantic. His permanently wobbly legs in the third Act emphasised his diminished status.

The more interesting character development came from Bernard’s old school friend Robert (Paul Sandys) and Bernard’s long-suffering maid Bertha (Jo Castleton). Robert’s story arc takes him from rural innocent and moral counterpoint to Bernard to becoming complicit in his friend’s duplicity and then breaking free to find his own love interest. The downtrodden maid who is the keeper of her master’s secrets uses her knowledge to raise her status.

Marc Camoletti’s award-winning farce is the most performed French play worldwide, according to the Guinness Book of World Records – and it’s easy to see why.

It’s a play about contrasts: order-chaos, city-country, master-servant. But ultimately it’s about laughs so fasten your seatbelts and brace yourself for the height of humour.

Performance times: Tue - Sat 7.45pm, Wed & Sat 2.30pm

Information and tickets: https://www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk/events/boeingboeing2022