The Last of the Summer Wine

The 1812 Theatre tackle another television to stage adaptation in their season this year – this time it is the Australian premiere of timeless UK sit-com Last of the Summer Wine, where we see Foggy, Clegg and Compo being reunited for one last riotous and farcical adventure.

From 1983 to 2010, the TV sit-com written by Roy Clarke was set and filmed in and around Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, England, and centered on a trio of old men and their youthful misadventures;

In this stage version we see Foggy, who (somewhat) has designs on winning the affections of Constance, Nora Batty’s niece and the long-suffering fiancé of the hapless Gifford Bewmont. Foggy invites the ladies around for an evening’s entertainment at Clegg’s behest, but the pair are unaware that a mysterious flasher is pestering the local community.

Gifford has committed to singlehandedly apprehending the flasher and has mounted all-night patrols, with his trusty bicycle and bugle. However, his efforts to capture the flasher lead to farcical moments of mistaken identities, a drunken drill match and even more chaos with the three near septuagenarians.

Apparently Clarke chose the original title, The Last of the Summer Wine, to convey the idea that the characters are not in the autumn of their lives but the summer, even though it may be "the last of the summer"; which they certainly explore in the stage adaptation.

I felt that the pace of the first episode took a little while to get going, however it upped in pace and movement during the second act and the farcical moments between Compo (George Thompson), Clegg (Roger Paul) and the somnolent Flasher (Robert Williams) and again between Compo and Aunt Nora (Ann Quinn).

The actors needed to project much more and pick up the pace right from the very beginning. There were a few lines mumbled and some good one-liners dropped in the slower pace.  It did however begin to speed up when Compo turns up uninvited and unwanted. Blocking needed to be tighter as some characters travelled the same path, time again.

George Thompson was the sheer highlight on stage. He took his part completely in stride and played it with gusto. His vocal qualities and mannerisms were truly of the stereotype of boisterous ‘village folk’.

An entertaining night at the theatre, especially if you were a fan of the long running TV series.

Penelope Thomas