“CLASSIC UK COMEDY SKETCHES & THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND BY TOM STOPPARD 2ND-4TH MAY 2019, 7.30pm, Tickets: £10/£6 STUDENTS
A double-bill of classic dishes make-up this hearty menu from UpShoot Theatre. The first course is studded with short comic skits from French & Saunders, Monty Python, Alas Smith & Jones, The Fast Show, Smack the Pony and Big Train, for a journey through the surreal, the silly and the downright ridiculous, to warm you up for dessert. Then we are offered ‘moments of sublime comedy’1 in Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound (1968). A one-act play that satirises two sides of theatrical practice that wouldn’t exist without the other - acting and reviewing. The play mocks one of the most famous ‘Whodunnit’s?’ of all time, Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap, while the two theatre critics reviewing it effortlessly take themselves apart. Moon (James Snelling, played Zidler, Moulin Rouge), the pretentious and miserable underdog and Birdboot (Joanne Forster, new to UpShoot), the lecherous, self-promoting, top of the hacks, draw us into a dingy world of hierarchy, influence and fame. Stoppard was once a hack himself and he deftly nails the tendency, from both reviewers, for lofty pronouncements. The characters in the whodunnit? are brought to life comically by the playboy Simon Gascoigne (Laila France, Director), Mrs Drudge (Ruth Alder, Satine, Moulin Rouge) the nosey home help, Felicity Cunningham (Leon Bedwell, Toulouse, Moulin Rouge) the plummy, heartbroken, rich girl, Lady Cynthia Muldoon (Alexandra Barrett, Nini Moulin Rouge) the stunning, nonchalant, alcoholic widow of Albert Muldoon, Major Magnus Muldoon (Katie Gooderham, Seana, Blue Orange) and The Real Inspector Hound (Ben Roper, the Devil, Bricks&Mortals) has all the surprises and is quite a character to behold. There is nothing ordinary about the casting or characters, and that sits comfortably with this comic masterpiece.
Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing is currently on tour around the UK, having just finished at the Theatre Royal in Norwich. UpShoot Theatre were fortunate enough to receive a personal message from Tom Stoppard wishing us the best for our shows as a friend of ours was appearing on the Rough Crossing Tour. We were thrilled to hear from Tom Stoppard himself and even more driven to make it the best performance ever. Sent: 12 April 2019 15:19 Subject: Message for The Real Inspector Hound production from Tom Stoppard
Having been tipped off about your production, by Simon Michael Morgan, I send my best wishes to the “Hound” company. I hope you have a good time. T.S.
1 Michael Billington, The Guardian, 11 July 2010.
Laila France, Director and Joint Director of UpShoot Theatre. ”
