Boeing Boeing

Boeing Boeing
By Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverley Cross. Castle Hill Players. Pavilion Theatre, Castle Holl Showgrounds. Sep 23 – Oct 15, 2016.

If you love a good farce, especially one that’s done well, then this production of Boeing Boeing will be just your ticket - and despite the fact that the plot might seem  politically incorrect, it’s not impossible that you’ll get lots of laughs.

The play has a long history. It was first produced in France in 1962. Translated into English, it ran for seven years in London, and in 1991 it was accredited as being the most performed French play across the world. It was revived in London in 2007 and in New York in 2008, where it won several Tony awards.

So why does a play from 1962 still work so well today? Probably because it’s … well… improbable! The plot revolves around Bernard, a flamboyant French architect who, with the coerced help of his bossy, disapproving maid Bertha, is juggling romances with three air hostesses. His old school friend Robert is suitably in awe of his daring until it’s obvious that some changes in flight schedules means there’s going to be some turbulence – and lots of opportunity for comedy if the action is strong enough to make the implausible laughingly plausible.

Stephen Snars and his cast have that strength. The production is bright and fast, mixing quickly-bitten dialogue and movement with just the right amount of farcical slapstick on a well-built set (designed by Jemima Snars) that has the space to sustain it – and bedroom doors that withstand constant slamming without making the walls shake!

Paul Sztelma plays Bernard with the timing and finesse needed for a character whose usual balance and sangfroid has been thrown into a tailspin. Initially suave, calm and self-assured, his character becomes increasingly rattled and agitated as his carefully scheduled life goes into free-fall. Sztelma relishes the pace of both the dialogue and physicality of farce and direction that is tight enough to make the comedy work.

Fresh from country Provence, Robert is impressed at Bernard’s audacity and Robert Snars finds all of this in bespectacled wonder and admiration – until he has to juggle the three women himself. Snars matches Sztelma pace for pace in some comical manoeuvring and doesn’t do a bad job of chatting up the three fiancées in between times.

Annette Dix is the lugubrious Bertha, trying to maintain some equilibrium in a household that is a constant state of change. Dix plumps and dusts her way through the turmoil that unfolds with just the right amount of sneering censure.

The three hostesses are played with flair by Jacquie Wilson (Janet, TWA), Bernadette Hook (Jacqueline, Air France) and Hannah Lehmann (Judith, Lufthansa). It’s not easy to remain poised and in control while being manipulated and embraced on stage by two men, but all depict the uniform (sorry!) glamour and style of the 1960s ‘hosties’ as well as their feistiness.

As well as being a good production, this is real community theatre, in that community theatre so often involves the whole family – though not usually as actively and creatively as this production does. Director-father, designer-daughter and actor-son are supported backstage by mother-stage manager and costume designer, Annette Snars. Truly a family affair!

This is a great play for the Pavilion theatre to celebrate spring. It’s bright, tight, fast moving, and lots of fun.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Chris Lundie.

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