UK Theatre Network

FRY AND LEY – A Double Bill            COCK TAVERN THEATRE

Stephen Fry’s Latin, and Duncan Ley’s Last Drinks at the Cock Tavern Theatre, Kilburn, offers an interesting, if not a peculiar mix and match of theatre.

Latin was written by Fry whilst still at Cambridge and remains his only play to date. It won him an Edinburgh Fringe First, and led to his collaboration with Hugh Laurie. Set at Chatham Preparatory School for Boys, it is a witty spoof of the traditional boys boarding schools so often immortalised in fiction. Dominic Clarke is the new school master of Latin who has a cunning plan to marry the headmaster’s daughter in order to become head himself when her father dies. However his older colleague Herbert Brookshaw discovers that Clarke has been having an affair with Cartwright, one of his 13 year old pupils. In return for not revealing his secret he asks Clarke to beat him “twice a week with a coat hanger and a wet towel, not forgetting the peanut-butter!”

It’s all a bit naughty with double entendres all the way. Latin is a gem of subversive juvenilia, and it’s uniquely British humour with references to bottoms, sticky ends and firm hands manages to bring the crowd into hysterics. From the beginning the audience take on the role of the errant pupils as they are addressed face to face with a Joyce Grenfell approach. Punters are put in detention for lateness, and exercise books are hurled at them with derisive comments from the tutor. Fry never apologises for the illegal relationship in the play. Indeed he almost celebrates it. Perhaps it is because of it’s sensitive nature that it has been rarely performed. Not surprisingly when it premiered in Edinburgh, a local councillor attacked the play for promoting paedophilia.

Matthew Burton displays outstanding comic timing as Clarke, and Mark White is scarily convincing as the merit obsessed Brookshaw, who appears the epitome of the old- fashioned master who surreptitously delights in late night extra-cirriculars. The pair embrace this titillating romp with gusto and it’s all very watchable.

The same cannot be said of Last Drinks by Duncan Ley. This feeble attempt at a poor man’s Waiting For Godot, had me wanting to run for the bar long before last orders had been called. Despite probably the best intentions by Ley, the play at times frequently seemed more like a parody rather than a homage to Beckett. Nathan Godkin’s direction veers between confused states of attempted comedy through ‘League Of Gentlemen’ characterisations and desperate drama. As the theatres of Paris and Berlin show, absurdist theatre is a specialised art form that has to be done extremely well or it comes across as trite and very pretentious. Unfortunately this production is a victim of the latter. This is not a reflection on the very capable cast who cope admirably with direction that appears to be guessing at this particular type of theatre.

The night’s double-bill is a reminder of how the success and failure of any production depends on so many fragile factors. It felt like a very long night, and perhaps the productions should have been presented on alternative evenings rather than together.

OLIVER VALENTINE                          Box Office: 08444771000