Review: The School for Scandal (Touring)

Tuesday, 23rd April 2024 at York Theatre Royal

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tilted Wig’s latest production takes R.B Sheridan’s 18th century comedy, The School for Scandal, and plants the story among London’s 1950’s bourgeoisie. While following one unlucky husband in particular, the play also introduces a social group who “murder characters to kill time” by delighting in wide-eyed gossip and scandalous insinuations. It’s an ambitious undertaking, especially considering the floral phrasing and dated nature of the writing, and the resulting production is uneven but not without a good sense of fun.

So, Sir Peter Teazle has married a young woman (half his age or so) and is now suffering the consequences. The local gossips are having a field day and the cast play multiple roles to provide us with an array of quirky characters. There are various twists as the farcical plot unfolds, and all the while Sir Peter is stomping about spitting feathers – or else dabbling in some longing speeches of unrequited love.

Joseph Marcell is a very authoritative and vexed Sir Teazle, who is prone to idiosyncratic sudden shouting. Marcell finds secure laughs in moments of incredulity and high emotion; Sir Peter is not keen to be cuckolded but also not willing to give up on his idea of a blossoming love. Lydea Perkins is a definite standout as Lady Teazle (also taking a great turn as the shuffling Mrs Candour) with all her put upon airs as the transformed country girl revelling in London society, along with lofty delivery of aloof but cutting one liners.

Garmon Rhys is another standout as Charles – one half of a chaotic band of brothers (Alex Phelps delivering the other half as the brilliantly smarmy Joseph, who has a particularly great moment of chaise-related physical comedy). Rhys is often the saviour of flagging scenes with his exuberant physicality and wildly eccentric delivery. Meanwhile, Tony Timberlake does well to pull off the trickeries of Sir Oliver in his various disguises and proves a dab hand at those all-important asides to the knowing audience (not to mention some very funny but all too fleeting synchronised foolishness with Rhys early on).

Aside from the trickiness of finding fast-paced, accessible comedy in the poetic eloquence of Sheridan’s writing, one of the key issues of the piece is the jarring set design. While in keeping with the chosen era, the set does no favours to the visual appeal of the piece and provides a tricky backdrop for the action, somehow losing any subtleties of the performances.

Sarah Beaton opts for a sickly peach vision of dated, layered curtains which dominate the space with ruffled fabric. Peter Small’s lighting periodically provides respite, casting scenes in shades of red or accosting bright light and takes the edge off for a beat, but they’re pretty unforgiving, those curtains. There are otherwise only (peach) fringed lampshades overhead and three 50’s phones on pastel podiums as our permanent fixtures – so despite the apparent wealth of our characters, we rely on hints at space and settings without any sense of style or scale (often not a problem, but it feels remiss here). Costuming does fare better though, playfully putting our characters in a variety of bold colours and gaudy get-ups – welcome vibrancy against that backdrop…

Ultimately, while the second act proves much more entertaining and funny than the first, Seán Aydon directs an uneven comedy in need of more polish and more laughs. It’s actually a top cast at the heart of it all, but they’re not given enough to work with to grab the laughs they’re clearly very capable of getting.

The School for Scandal is at York Theatre Royal until April 27th 2024 – more information and tickets can be found here.