Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Thursday 20th November 2014
The Adelaide Repertory Theatre Society's final offering for the year is a complete farce. To be more specific, it is
Tom, Dick, and Harry, written in 2003 by the English master of the farce genre,
Ray Cooney, and his son, Michael, and it is directed by one of Adelaide's most experienced actors and directors, Ian Rigney. This is a combination that would hard to beat and, with Rigney's skill in casting resulting in a collection of sensational young actors, in whom he has instilled a thorough understanding of the form, and a few experienced actors already well versed in performing farce, the result is much hilarity.
Tom and Linda Kerwood plan to adopt a baby, and today is the day when Mrs. Potter is going to call to interview them and inspect the home to which a baby might come. They are, naturally, rather nervous about the meeting, even though they are well prepared, Tom was not prepared, though, for his brothers, Dick, who lives upstairs in a room that he rents from them, and Harry, a porter at a teaching hospital, to turn up and throw everything into chaos.
Tom is the black sheep of the family, failing to follow in father's very illegal footsteps, but his two brothers are as bent as bananas. Dick has returned from the Continent with a van load of smuggled goods, and an unexpected pair of illegal immigrants, who speak no English, hiding in his van, and Harry is carting around a large bag of smelly human body parts that he plans to sell to medical students, after using them to try to help Tom get the price lowered on the house, which he hopes to purchase. Adding to Tom's woes are an increasingly more suspicious policeman, and the arrival of an armed heavy from the Russian Mafia.
James Edwards, as Tom, David Salter, as Dick, and Matt Houston, as Harry, are an act in themselves, their dialogue flying along at the high pace that is needed in a farce such as this, coupled with some brilliant physical comedy, and a lot of very clever stage business. All three have excellent comic timing, sparking off each other and challenging one another to rise to ever higher comic heights as the play progresses.
Glenn Vallen and Tamara Bennetts give the trio a run for their money as a great double act, too, in the roles of the heavy drinking, trumpet playing elderly man, Andreas, and his buxom granddaughter, Katerina, the two Kosovan refugees. They get a good run of laughs out of the failure to communicate with the men.
Lana Adamuszek, as Linda Kerwood, works hard to keep up with the rest of the ensemble, but seems to lack a little experience compared to the others, failing to wait for the laughter to die down before delivering her dialogue, meaning that it occasionally gets lost, and being somewhat mechanical in her delivery.
Penni Hamilton-Smith turns in another of her winning performances as the adoption agent, Mrs. Potter, a ramrod stiff and very proper Scottish matron who brooks no nonsense. Seeking to ensure that Tom and Linda will be good parents and offer a stable home gives Hamilton-Smith ample scope for humour as the chaos unfolds around her.
Stanley Tuck plays Constable Downs, very much an old school copper on the beat, who has no time for humour and does things by the book. He is a perfect foil for the madcap threesome, focussing on the expired tax disc on the van, and its open back doors, and completely missing the big things..
John Koch looks every bit the Russian Mafia bad guy, Boris, complete with a pistol, a briefcase full of fake passports, and a mean attitude, but lacking the wits to avoid falling foul of the brothers.
The set, designed by Rigney and Vinnie Eustace, is a nicely solid and comfortable lounge room, with a few doors, a window, and a staircase, which are all used as entrances and exits, without which no farce would be possible. Jo Toppertwein has established a very even lighting design, and costume coordinator, Sue Wylie, has the cast suitable attired, with Constable Downs looking authentic enough to step into an episode of The Bill. Rigney and Koch sourced some of the props, but special mention must go to Ushmo, a much sought after wizard in the wings, who painstakingly made all of the carefully wrapped body parts.
Like any good farce, there is nothing here to overtax the brain, but any part of the body involved in laughing could well be sore and aching by the end of the evening. That is a health risk well worth taking, and you should be taking the whole family with you for a great night of fun and nonsense, something all Australians could do with at the moment. Once word gets around, tickets could be hard to come by, so hurry, and make this an end of year night out to remember.
Photography by Norm Caddick.
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