Very good(ale), Jeeves!
They saw, much to their delight, a single actor switching roles with ease and that led to the birth of a new dream to be in theatre too.
What: West End Production presents “Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense”
When: Nov 11- Nov 13 at 7:00pm
Where: St Johns Auditorium, John Nagar, opposite BDA Complex, Koramangala
“If he had a mind, there was something on it.”
— P.G. Wodehouse
A one-man theatre show in the small town of Tonbridge, Kent in the United Kingdom over 25 years ago changed the lives of two brothers, Robert and David Goodale. They saw, much to their delight, a single actor switching roles with ease and that led to the birth of a new dream – to be in theatre too.
Life, as it turned out, had many setbacks planned for their journey. Robert took the plunge and pursued theatre full time, while his brother David convinced himself that it could never be anything more than a hobby. He had spent several years in the hotel industry before the chance to direct a play, another Wodehouse adaptation, emerged. This time, he paid heed.
Called Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, the play is set, true to Wodehouse’s style, in the charming English countryside. Bertie Wooster and his faithful butler Jeeves find their weekend going ridiculously south, with Wooster finding himself in the thick of one more hair-brained scheme.
“Bertie gives into the idea that he is a good actor and that he can perform an entire play on his own. He is a very adorable but manipulated character. The character of Jeeves balances his craziness out. He takes care of things so that Bertie can breeze through the schemes.”
The 120-minute play has some incredibly quick costume changes too and will have audiences in splits in no time, laughs David. “It is unconventional, like a play within a play. As the curtain rises, the play starts with Bertie trying to play a host of characters and he is just exasperated and needs Jeeves, who keeps him sane and makes the contingency plans. It gets madder and madder after that.”
While the play is an adaptation, David has tried to keep original Wodehouse dialogues wherever he can so fans won’t be disappointed and so far, they haven’t been. “The original dialogues are all there and we have tried to stick to them unless absolutely necessary. So far, there has been a positive response. We’ve had the audience in Chennai repeat the dialogues along with the cast, even finish sentences, it’s brilliant how deeply they love the author, and it’s a pleasure performing for that kind of a crowd,” said the sixty seven year old delightedly.
The West End production, which wowed Mumbai audiences earlier this year, will be returning to India after successful tours of Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.