Hit West End comedy lands in Glasgow for a flying visit as part of it’s UK Tour.

When flight changes on a visit to London meant that I missed this play on it’s West End run (little realising the irony), I was more than delighted to see it touring to Glasgow this year, and went along with high expectations. These expectations were dampened slightly by the rather bare and dirty front cloth, which had me hoping that more care had been taken with rest of the production out on tour. However, once the curtain went up and the performance began, we saw we were in for a treat.

Martin Marquez, as Bernard gave a very enigmatic and charming performance, and looked far more handsome than his “sleazy barman” image from Hotel Babylon. His brother John (here playing his cousin!) however stole the show. His slow progression from the stuttering provincial cousin, to unintentional ladies man was a delight to watch. The naturalness of his nervous tics were in stark contrast to the physical humour played out during the second act of this farce, and as with all comedy, playing it for real makes it seem all the funnier.

Onto the ladies, and the three mistresses gave great performances too. Not only do these three ladies look stunning, but they have the intelligence to handle good comic timing, most notably in the rather wordier first act. Sarah Jayne Dunn made the transfer from Hollyoaks to Hollywood, as the glamorous and fiesty American Gloria. Thaila Zucchi, of TV’s Balls Of Steel, showed exactly that as the forthright Italian Gabriella. The gutsy German, Gretchen, was excellently characterised by Jospehine Butler, and although neither of the european accents were entirely convincing, the performances definitely were. However, top of the tree for performance was Susie Blake. Her deadpan delivery as downtrodden domestic servant Bertha was poetry in motion. The timing of movement and putdowns showed another layer to this versatile actress.

The set design was simple and clean, which is ideal for a door slamming farce such as this, with the odd splash of colour to break up the white, and help focus the action. The randomness of the Curtain Call Choreography was entertaining and intriguing and for some strange reason, fitted into the whole evening of enjoyable theatre that was Boeing Boeing.