Simon Henderson reviews the Globe Theatre production of Boeing Boeing — Saturday , September 24.
When is a play past its use-by date?
Theatre is a dynamic medium, able to adapt and reflect the shifting tides of public taste.
So what to do when presented with Boeing Boeing, a play written by French playwright Marc Camoletti in the 1960s that features a smooth-talking swinger who engages in high-jinks with three delightfully dim female flight attendants.
The first thing to understand is Boeing Boeing is a farce, a deliberately far-fetched and over-the-top comedy with lots of just-in-time entries and exits.
If the plot is suitably ludicrous perhaps this enables it to rise above unpalatable cliches of randy bachelors and ditzy trolley dollies.
In this production of Boeing Boeing, the flight attendants, played by Clare MacDonell (Gretchen), Eva Maya Lloyd (Gabrielle) and Mel McCosh (Gloria) inhabit their colour-coded airline uniforms and jet-setting multinational accents with style.
Daniel McClymont, as fiance-juggling bachelor Bernard, aims to portray a louche lounge lizard, but struggles a little to pull off the impression of master manipulator.
Cheyne Jenkinson, as socially awkward best friend Robert, embraces the silliness of the material with overblown discombobulation, twisting his face and body into entertaining buffoonery that captured much of the night’s laughs.
As po-faced and long-suffering maid Berthe, Kay Masters added a touch of authentic tut-tutting and gallic shrugs at the comic carnage.
Some staging decisions by director Aaron Richardson could be improved as actors at times were delivering lines to the back of the stage.
In the context of its time as a swinging ’60s comic sexcapade, Boeing Boeing delivers a night of high-spirited escapism.
-Boeing Boeing continues until Saturday October 1.
