Review: Fawlty Towers - The Play at Sunderland Empire
Three classic episodes, a knowing audience, and a farce that still lands beautifully.
As someone who knows Fawlty Towers back to front - every pause, pratfall and perfectly-pitched incredulous insult etched into laughing-muscle memory - I arrived at Fawlty Towers The Play at Sunderland Empire with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
Was I always going to enjoy it? Probably. But 50 years after the sitcom first aired, this is also a production that has an icon of the small screen to live up to - and an audience who know exactly how funny and brilliant it should be.
I’d happily place a bet (as long as I could keep Sybil in the dark) that upwards of 95% of the crowd were firm devotees of the show, which regularly tops all manner of polls when it comes to the greatest ever British sitcom.
They (we) audibly pre-empted punchlines - like kids who know they’re about to be tickled and can’t contain themselves. It’s a fitting atmosphere for a show that is imprinted into the shared cultural memory of generations.
Adapted by its co-creator John Cleese, the play brings together three of the perhaps most quoted episodes (with only 12 ever written by Cleese and Connie Booth you could describe every one as a classic) - The Hotel Inspector, The Germans and Communication Problems.
The stitching together is surprisingly fluid and manages to neatly weave the farcical momentum of the television originals into a multi-story plot.
The performances are knowingly faithful. Danny Bayne delivers a pretty-faultless (fawltless?) Basil Fawlty - all coiled fury, social paranoia and physical despair - while Mia Austen neatly captures Sybil’s clipped authority and venomous calm and Joanne Clifton puts in a solid shift as Polly, the Torquay hotel’s emotional (and logistical) glue.
Hemi Yeroham brings a sweet sincerity to the nation’s favourite Spanish waiter, Manuel. While the character’s perpetual bewilderment doesn’t always land, Yeroham more than earns his big laughs in the show’s most familiar moments.
And Neil Stewart, stepping in as The Major for Paul Nicholas, plays the role with just the right blend of befuddled dignity… and time sensitive prejudice.
Director Caroline Jay Ranger has approached the material with reverence rather than reinvention, and that extends to Liz Ascroft’s lovingly detailed set.
The two-level Torquay hotel - complete with lobby, dining room, staircase and guest bedroom - is instantly recognisable, right down to the famously jumbled Fawlty Towers sign. It feels less like an adaptation than a faithful migration from screen to stage.
Unashamedly a tribute rather than a reimagining, Fawlty Towers The Play would never dare put a fresh spin on such sacred comedy icons - and nor should it. It’s a cast-iron treat for fans, and a reminder that, half a century on, the farce still makes an audience rock with laughter. Even when they know exactly what’s coming.
The play is at Sunderland Empire until Saturday (Feb 7). Tickets from the website.