On The Razzle By Tom Stoppard

Meena Toor reviews The Questors production

Related Links

Above images courtesy Robert Vass and below @Meena Toor

The Questors

 

 

Participate

Sign up for our free newsletter

Comment on this story on the

Tom Stoppard’s comic farce, ‘On the Razzle’, is the playhouse performance for the Questors Academy Student Group 66 in Questors Theatre, on Ealing’s Mattock Lane. The origins of this play come from Sir John Oxenford’s 1835 one-act farce, ‘A Day Well Spent’.

Some may recognise that Oxenford’s version was adapted into Austrian Johann Nestroy’s 1842 ‘Einen Jux will er sich machen’ (‘He’s out for a fling’) and ‘The Merchant of Yonkers’ – and later ‘The Matchmaker’ — by Thornton Wilder. Or perhaps you’ve seen Broadway hit ‘Hello, Dolly!’?

Stoppard adapts the Nestroy version, but adds his own touch with sexual innuendo and puns. Putting on a Stoppard play also has great meaning for the Questors Theatre, which was originally one of the first venues to perform Stoppard’s ‘Guildenstern and Rosencrantz’.

The money-minded pompous Herr Zangler, played by Rory Greenfield started the play strong with his believable English-speaking foreigner’s accent. He appears on stage confused and often distracted by his own thoughts, needing his subordinates to humorously correct his phrases.

Zangler plans to propose in Vienna to Madame Knorr, a rich and widowed Venetian cloth boutique owner, while denying the hand of his niece, Marie, to love-struck young dandy Sounders. He arranges that Marie is entrusted to her aunt instead and employs witty servant Melchior to keep an eye on them.

In Zangler’s words, “I woke up this morning feeling like a new man – so I got one!”

Meanwhile, his own wholesale business is to be tended to by his sales assistant, Christopher, and apprentice, Weinberl, who decide to go ‘on the razzle’ to Vienna for a night to remember. While evading their boss, Christopher concocts a sham marriage to stranger Mrs. Fischer to please her friend, Madame Knorr, and involves Weinberl in the growing deception.

With the help of two tartan cloaks, two pairs of military boots and the unknown go-between Melchior who recognises no one but Zangler, there’s plenty that can and does go wrong. There’s mistaken identities, double entrendres and even a trap door.

The play has some real moments of brilliance. Christopher, played by Emily Newns, portrays the visionary enthusiasm of a philosopher in his observations which make him a gripping energy. Emma Armstrong Hawkins plays the gawky Weinberl, intent on excitement and adventure. Both actresses translate well the character’s relationship with each other and it’s an incremental guilty pleasure to see their antics.

Most vocally clear was actor Kassa Hailu, who was able to carry the self-assuredness that Melchior’s character demanded, making his overtures over Zangler even the more funny – the comic reversal of Melchior interviewing Zangler for the position of his boss worked well.

As part of the accredited Questors Academy acting and performance two-year course, this summer playhouse production serves as the showcase following 12 weeks of rehearsal, and 2 years of theoretical and practical study.

With such importance put on one show, how did Director and Tutor, Richard Gallagher, choose his play?

“Everyone has got to have a decent part. This ensemble play is set in Vienna, which affords us the ‘breeches’ role – women playing men –from Viennese comedy. With actress Felicity Kendal playing male Christopher in the original production staged at the National Theatre, it made it easier for me to decide to have females switching gender, and it also suited the casting.”

While cast initially had problems with getting used to the style and “timing head turns and punching in with lines”, the complex technical staging of the play was made simpler with rotating set pieces designed by Carla Evans. The lighting was elegant and well-timed by lighting director and recent winner of the 2013 Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) ‘Technician of the Year’ award, Ben Sandford.

Student actors will now have the opportunity to act as part of the member productions, though some have already been accepted into drama schools.

It was a privilege to see Student Group 66 perform their final year’s playhouse production. Call me biased for having completed the same course a year ago, but it only helps me understand how polished the play was and how much dedication was given to their characters. Slick and entertaining.

Meena Toor

@journomeena

journomeena@gmail.com

 

 

25th July 2013

 


Bookmark and Share