Bang Bang! | |
---|---|
Written by | John Cleese Georges Feydeau (original) |
Date premiered | 24 February 2017 |
Place premiered | Mercury Theatre, Colchester |
Genre | Comedy |
Bang Bang! is a comedy play by John Cleese. It is an adaptation of the French play Monsieur chasse! by Georges Feydeau
The play made its world premiere at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, from 24 February to 11 March 2017. [1] The American premiere of the play opened at the Shadowland Stages, in Ellenville, New York, from 10 August to 9 September 2018. [2] A new production of the play, directed by Daniel Buckroyd and produced by Dermot McLaughlin, Charles H. Duggan and Brian Zucker, opened at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, before touring the UK from February 2020. [3]
2017/2018 Production The reviewer in The Daily Telegraph wrote: "Cleese seems to have contented himself with stuffing the original with coarse, cheap jokes. When Richard Earl's charmless doctor is rejected by Leontine, he tells her to shove it where the sun don't shine. Sorry to be prudish, but I could have done without such crudities. Characters keep breaking the fourth wall to inform the audience what a nightmare it all is, but being told a situation is getting out of control is not the same as feeling it. Disappointing". [4] The Times described the adaptation as "a production that falls short of hilarity … more creak creak than bang bang … It's Feydeau without fizz". [5] The Stage was more positive noting that "amid the... tight direction there are several laugh-out-loud moments." [6]
2020 Production The reviewer in LondonTheatre1 wrote: "David Shields’ set is brilliantly designed, beginning at Monsieur and Madame Duchotel's (Tony Gardner and Tessa Peake-Jones) Parisian home and switching to Madame Latour's (Wendi Peters) chambers. The set cleverly swivels around and the Duchotel's saloon door becomes the door to the balcony, the door to Duchotel's dressing room becomes a wardrobe and a bookcase becomes the door to a second room in the chambers; plenty of entrance and exit opportunities here. While the scenery is being changed after the first act by the male cast members dressed in brown coats, Mme. Latour relates the story of her life in song, with the scene-shifters joining in and moving the furniture in time with the music. This production must be hard work for the excellent cast, as the action is fast-paced and often requires precision timing. For the audience, there is no such pressure; the story is a typical farce involving extramarital affairs, slamming doors and plenty of trouser dropping. The double standards of France in the 1890s are still rich pickings for comedy. Mme. Latour has just evicted a tenant for her disreputable behaviour, having multiple assignations with scruffy young men for cash. Her chambers are for the assignations of respectable married men and women, in one case they are actually married to each other. It is surprising that this play is so little known, it is comedy gold in the hands of this fantastic cast. Tessa Peake-Jones, Tony Gardner, and Richard Earl (Dr. Moricet) give a master class in farce. Wendi Peters’ facial expressions alone reduced me to tears of laughter. There are plenty of “asides” and interactions with the audience. Cast and audience all seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. I am so pleased that I got to see this production, I highly recommend it." [7]
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python costars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983).
Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau was a French playwright of the Belle Époque era, remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914.
A bedroom farce or sex farce is a type of light comedy focusing on the sexual pairings and recombinations of characters as they move through improbable plots and slamming doors.
Wendi Louise Peters is an English actress. She is a Leapling. Peters began her acting career in theatre, with appearances in various productions including The Scarlet Pimpernel (1991), Guys and Dolls (1991), Into the Woods (1992), Bedroom Farce (1996) and Noises Off (1997). Then from 2003 to 2007 and again in 2014, she portrayed Cilla Battersby-Brown in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
A Flea in Her Ear is a play by Georges Feydeau written in 1907, at the height of the Belle Époque. The author called it a vaudeville, but in Anglophone countries, where it is the most popular of Feydeau's plays, it is usually described as a farce.
The Théâtre Feydeau, a former Parisian theatre company, was founded in 1789 with the patronage of Monsieur, Comte de Provence, and was therefore initially named the Théâtre de Monsieur. It began performing in the Salle des Tuileries, located in the north wing of the Tuileries Palace, then moved to the Salle des Variétés at the Foire Saint-Germain, and beginning in 1791, settled into its own custom-built theatre, the Salle Feydeau located on the rue Feydeau. The company was renamed Feydeau after the royal family was arrested during the French Revolution.
Look After Lulu! is a farce by Noël Coward, based on Occupe-toi d'Amélie! by Georges Feydeau. It is set in Paris in 1908. The central character is an attractive cocotte, Lulu, whose lover is called away on military service; the plot involves libidinous foreign royalty, a mock wedding that turns out to be real, people hiding under beds and in bathrooms, and a happy ending.
Le Système Ribadier is a farce in three acts by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Hennequin, first performed in November 1892. It depicts a husband's stratagem for escaping the marital home to engage in extramarital intrigue, by hypnotising his wife.
L'Hôtel du Libre échange is a comedy written by the French playwrights Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières in 1894. The play takes place in Paris in the 19th century, and follows two Parisian households and their friends over the course of two days. The play has three acts; acts one and three take place in Monsieur Pinglet's office, while act two takes place in Hôtel du Libre échange, a small Paris hotel. The play has been translated into several other languages.
Hotel Paradiso is a 1966 British comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Panavision. It was directed by Peter Glenville and based on the play L'Hôtel du libre échange by Maurice Desvallières and Georges Feydeau. The film allowed Alec Guinness to reprise the role he had played in the London West End theatre production of Hotel Paradiso, which opened at the Winter Garden Theatre, Drury Lane, London on 2 May 1956. In the play, Guinness performed alongside Martita Hunt (Angelique), Irene Worth (Marcelle), Frank Pettingell (Cot), Kenneth Williams (Maxime) and Billie Whitelaw (Victoire). Douglas Byng also reprised his part from the stage play.
Alfred Néoclès Hennequin was a Belgian playwright, best known for his farces. Born in Liège, Hennequin was trained there as an engineer, and was employed by the national railway company. In his spare time he wrote plays, and in 1870 had a success in Brussels with his farce Les Trois chapeaux. He moved to Paris in 1871 and became a full-time playwright. Between 1871 and 1886 he wrote a series of comic plays, including Le Procès Veauradieux, Les Dominos roses, Bébé and La Femme à papa. Most of his plays were co-written with collaborators including Alfred Delacour and Albert Millaud and, in his last play, his son Maurice.
The Fox on the Fairway is a comedy by Ken Ludwig that premiered at the Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, in 2010. It concerns the goings-on at a private country club.
Un fil à la patte is a three-act farce by Georges Feydeau. It was first performed in Paris in 1894 and ran for 129 performances. The play has been revived frequently in France, and has been staged in translations in the US and Britain.
La Dame de chez Maxim is a three-act farce by Georges Feydeau, first produced in Paris in 1899. It depicts the complications ensuing when a respectable citizen becomes mixed up with a Moulin Rouge dancer after drinking too much champagne at Maxim's restaurant.
William Lestocq was a British theatre manager, playwright, and actor.
Le Dindon is a three-act farce by Georges Feydeau, first produced in Paris in 1896. It depicts the unsuccessful attempts of the central character – the "dindon" to seduce a married woman, and the chaotic events caused by his fruitless machinations.
The Goes Wrong Show is a British comedy television series created by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, and produced by Mischief Screen and Big Talk Productions, in association with Lionsgate UK, for the BBC. The programme stars the ensemble members of the Mischief Theatre company, who reprise their roles as the members of the fictitious theatre company, "Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society", as they conduct a "live" televised stage play, which tends to go wrong due to mistakes, accidents and other issues that hamper the company's efforts. The concept was devised by Lewis, Sayer and Shields following two television Christmas specials for the BBC, with the series premiering on BBC One on 23 December 2019. In 2020, the group conducted a second series, but under strict guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, which aired on 27 September 2021.
Monsieur chasse! is a three-act farce by Georges Feydeau, first produced in Paris in 1892. A married man disguises his absences conducting an extramarital affair in Paris as shooting trips in the country, but an evening's chaotic events expose his deception.
Alfred Maltby was an English actor, costume designer, playwright and columnist. He began his theatrical career in 1872, becoming a much sought-after costume designer in the West End. By 1875 he began to write comic plays, which were successfully staged. Persuaded to take a role in one of his own pieces in 1876 he also began an acting career in which he specialised in playing comic, eccentric and usually elderly characters, for which portrayals he also earned enthusiastic reviews.
Lucien Rozenberg was a French actor, theatre director, playwright and film director. He was principally known as a stage performer, but during the First World War he starred in a series of short comedy films, and in the 1930s returned to the screen in films by, among others, Abel Gance.