Scandaltown at Lyric Theatre reviewed by Christopher Walker

Scandaltown – well that’s one way to describe London.

The wonderfully talented Rachael Stirling leads a young cast through a rollicking romp at the Lyric, writes Christopher Walker.

She says it’s great “to come back to theatre with a new play that has the energy of Restoration [comedies]. But that speaks to an audience directly about today. A really good night out.”

Mike Bartlett has three major plays on at present which says something for his talent. This wonderful piece captures the spirit of Restoration theatre. The Arts’ response to years of puritanism and a dreadful plague.

It has all the right elements. Characters’ names are themselves a joke.

The social media expert is Hannah Tweetwell, Rachael’s own calculating character Lady Susan Climber, and the bumptious TV producer Rosalind Double-Budget.

Sex, power and money are all anyone cares about. And there is the necessary bed-hopping and bad language. But in all honesty not much more that you’d see in any London theatre.

Against this traditional set up, the plot is hyper modern.

It concerns two colliding social strata. A comically woke young lady Phoebe Virtue (a very funny Cecilia Appiah) leaves the North “a blustery monochrome land” in search of her brother Jack in London. She fears he has fallen into a sewer of vice and boy has she got that right.

Jack is played by a delightful discovery, Matthew Broome in his stage debut. As he struts on stage in his well-filled Y-fronts, we discover a young gentleman who has a commanding presence and is compelling watching.

He has just spent the night with Hannah Tweetwell, Aysha Kala, but that doesn’t stop Jack from feeling like a follow up ‘quickie’ with anyone to hand.

In his rather squalid flat share (we’ve all been there) he has a willing partner in Freddie Peripheral (a very flexible Luke Hornsby) and less so in Jenny Hood (Ami Okumara Jones).

She’s more into girls and picking pockets. There is a sexual fluidity in this piece that also captures the spirit of our age, and Dr. Lloyd Houston, a Gender Consultant advised, along with Intimacy Director Yarit Dor.

At the other end of the social scale, Lady Climber (the uber stylish Rachael Stirling) reclines in her Mayfair drawing room waited on by Carson the butler (a Lurch like Henry Everett).

She is seeking advice from Hannah Tweetwell on how to overcome an Instagram gaffe.

The recovery plan ropes in the Tory Minister for Procurement, Matt Eton.

A hilariously funny Richard Goulding who is entirely believable as he channels David Cameron, Matt Hancock and Michael Gove.

At first the scheme works, and Annette McLaughlin, well caste as Rosalind Double Budget, even offers Lady Climber a morning TV show.

But it all comes apart as the two groups meet at the Netflix Masked Ball and end up coupling in unexpected ways.

Rosalind’s young son Tom Double-Budget (the ever virginal Thomas Josling) ends up bedding Lady Climber.

Hood seduces Phoebe, and Eton lands Peripheral. Eton’s wife, Rebecca (Emma Cunniffe) comes to the flat share to clear up.

It’s all good dirty fun.

For Rachael Stirling it is also a highly personal piece. She lost her fabulous mother Diana Rigg to cancer during the lockdown.

Rachael said, “The theatre is the closest thing I’ve got to church” and she relishes the intimacy of the Lyric claiming no one “is more than 64ft away. I can play with the congregation and be as naughty as I please.”

Director Rachel O’Riordan says Scandaltown is “a statement of intent for the future of theatre.”

It is indeed defiantly joyful. https://lyric.co.uk/shows/scandaltown

 

Pictured: Rachael Stirling and Aysha Kala in Scandaltown – credit: Marc Brenner