More than two decades ago, at the 1993 Edinburgh Fringe, actor Robert Goodale ran a well-received one-man show, that was directed by his brother David.
Based on the PG Wodehouse 1938 novel, The Code of the Woosters , Robert acted primarily as the idly rich Bertie Wooster, but juggled several other parts while recounting his foibles at Totleigh Towers, a grand fictitious country house. Even then, the brothers knew Wodehouse was popular in India. They had travelled here in the 1980s, and had noticed how even the most archaic English phrases were still in vogue.
An old, erudite Parsi gentleman had even ticked them off, “Honestly you guys murder your mother tongue. Why can’t you be more like PG Wodehouse?” Looking back, David says, “I don’t really know if Wodehouse’s appeal in India was because of a colonial hangover. I think it is more likely our shared sense of humour, sometimes over very frivolous things.” They were in talks with the British Council to tour India then, but those plans fell through.
Now, in their fifties, the brothers are finally in India with a completely overhauled version, now called Jeeves and Wooster inPerfect Nonsense . Their fringe outing got backers for a West End debut, and since 2013, it has been running successfully at the Duke of York’s Theatre, picking up an Olivier Award for Best Comedy along the way. Initially skeptical about how the show would transfer to a bigger stage, the original’s format came to the rescue.
The Jeeves and Wooster books have always been recounted in the first person by Wooster himself, so a narrator was already in place.
David says, “That lent itself perfectly to the one-man show. This time around, we created the conceit of Wooster himself wanting to put up his own one-man show, because his acolytes at the club had told him repeatedly that he was a brilliant raconteur.” Expectedly, he falls at the first hurdle, and it’s up to Jeeves to save the day, keeping the illusion of performance going by taking on the multiple personas that crop up in the story.
An elderly valet, Seppings, who was a minor character in the Wodehouse novels, was fleshed out for Robert, the original Wooster, to inhabit. One of the West End’s great talents, Sean Foley, one half of the smash hit double-act, The Play What I Wrote , who can be possibly be described as a master of contemporary farce, stepped in as director of the rejigged version.
“The best laughs in the show come from the physical comedy he introduced,” says David. The benign amusement one may experience while reading the books is supplanted by uproarious scenes during the performances of this “fast and furious version”, with Wodehouse’s delicious verbiage and ludicrous plots finally given the pantomime treatment they deserve. A happy coincidence that helped the production was that fact that the 100-year anniversary of the Jeeves stories took place in 2015. The reported spurt in sales of Wodehouse titles can be attributed to both the centenary and the presence of the hit West End show.
Many shows have seen students come in at large numbers. One such show was attended by Blank Slate’s Avinash Shankar who wanted to bring it to India. It was an ambitious undertaking that has finally come to fruit.
The transition to the NCPA’s Jamshed Bhabha Theatre hasn’t been without its share of hiccups.
The lighting scheme in the original consisted of subtly burning oil lamps that evoked the faintly old-world manorial setting of the books. Here, conventional stage lighting will attempt to recreate the same ambience. A shipment from London, of a large chunk of the play’s set design, was cancelled at very short notice. Ingeniously, Shankar’s team was able to build each element from scratch from a production blueprint, restoring to the play the trappings of aristocracy that is its mainstay. “I think it is even better than the original set,” says David.
Perhaps to offset expectedly high staging costs, or maybe as an indication of the rising purchasing power parity of the Indian elite, the pricing of tickets has been kept in line with the play’s British rates of admittance (roughly £20 - £80). This is certainly a gamble for Blank Slate, a media firm making its first foray into theatrical enterprise. The Goodales were surprised, “Our jaws dropped when we heard. I do hope we don’t perform to only very privileged people. Our play is geared towards all kinds of audiences, really.” It is understandable, though, that top-tier international live entertainment will come at a premium price in an untested market. It’s the tip of the iceberg that will, perhaps, lead to more affordable fare in the future.
Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, plays at the NCPA’s Jamshed Bhabha Theatre from January 8 to January 10 (two shows daily, at 4 pm and 8 pm). Tickets are available at bookmyshow.com, or at the NCPA box office.
(The author is a theatre critic and freelance writer)
Wodehouse’s delicious verbiage and ludicrous plots are given the pantomime treatment they deserve
Published - January 09, 2016 12:00 am IST
