The Play That I Wrote - Slapstick At Its Best

Emilie Moon and Claire Haddleton continue to enjoy fun filled trips out to York's Theatre Royal this time enjoying a tribute to the one and only Morecambe and Wise

We had only vaguely heard of this play but really did not know much about it so we took our seats in anticipation. What followed was a ‘play within a play’ and a real tribute to the iconic Morecambe and Wise; full of slapstick comedy and constant references to the late comedians’ show from the 60s and 70s.

It tells the story of an aspiring playwright (Thom) who is dreaming of staging his original play (the one what he wrote!) whilst blissfully unaware that his partner Dennis) is planning to stage a show about Moreambe and Wise. Dennis enlists the help of his mate Arthur to help him persuade Thom to ditch his own play; Arthur cleverly takes on many guises throughout the show.

The theatre was having first night teething problems plus being hindered by being short staffed backstage- this led to a delay in both the start of the show, the second half and involved a short pause in the middle to enable the props to be set up properly.

Credit to the production team for being honest and to the actors for making these mishaps humorous and for some excellent and hilarious ad-libbing on the stage!

The talented Dennis Herdman and Thom Tuck play the farcical double act but the real laughs start as the third character in the cast, Arthur (played very ably by Mitesh Soni) enters the stage. The theatre is then filled with foolish jokes, funny facial expressions and other acts of crude comedy; this doesn’t really stop for the full 2 hours.

We have now learnt that every show, just as in the original Morcambe and Wise show, has a celebrity guest appearance, referred to all the way through the first act and then surprising the audience in the second. In York, we were lucky to see Susan Holderness who played Boycie’s wife Marlene in Only Fool’s and Horses. This appearance brought an added dimension to the comedy and she too had to do copious amounts of ad-libbing to help out the depleted stage crew!

There are some magical musical moments too and the show ends with a rendition of Bring Me Sunshine to send the audience on their way smiling.