IT was always tempting providence and the spleen of critics when Peter
Hall chose the title An Absolute Turkey for his version of Feydeau's
classic farce of extramarital affairs, Le Dindon. Unfortunately for him,
despite a pre-London run in Leatherhead, this damp squib of a production
comes too close for comfort to fulfilling the promise of its title.
Unlike traditional English farce, where people apparently discovered
in compromising adulterous situations are revealed to be innocent,
Feydeau deals with genuine adulterous relationships and would-be
infidelities, casting an astringent eye on double standards in sexual
relationships in a highly topical way.
So, in theory, the show should be a sure-fire success, with an
accomplished cast led by Felicity Kendal, Griff Rhys Jones, Nicholas Le
Predost, and Geoffrey Hutchings, set by Gerald Scarfe, and direction by
Hall himself, but in practice it is a limp affair. It lacks the detailed
and precise treatment which farce requires, and fails fatally to
differentiate adequately between stereotypes and caricatures.
From the opening nondescript music to the final poorly
staged curtain line, the
production never develops
rhythm or a sense of the inexorable un winding of a mechanism that
underlies the best farce stagings. Perhaps the fault lay in the opening
exchanges which gallop away from some uninventively phallic umbrella
work into a frenzy of cross purposes which left no room to establish a
semblance of normality before the onset of hysterical hyperactivity.
Despite these difficulties, which even led to some booing when I saw
the play, there are some good points, including the set and costumes,
and Dervla Kirwan's performance as a courtesan, but my overall
impression was of stale leftovers rather than a feast.
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