April 26, 2000: Labiche, Threesome

Lyric, Hammersmith, Translated by Neil Bartlett

Not nearly so good a play as the classic Italian Straw Hat or Feydeau at his best (e.g. A Flea in Her Ear), but a pleasant, well played farce. Original title: Le Plus hereux des trois. An oafish Alsatian gardener and his wife (who only made one mistake once) are the surprise characters. Scrimp on the full bric-a-brac realism required by well mounted French farce (or English farce, for that matter) and a good bit gets “lost in translation” to the Lyric Hammersmith stage. But the pace — the most important thing of all — was satisfactory if not really split-second, and the casting reasonably good. Not in the same class with Orton or the author (whose name escapes me for the moment — oh, it’s Ray Cooney) of Run For Your Wife.