When The School for Scandal opened at Drury Lane in 1777, it was said the audience laughed so loudly that a passer-by thought the theatre was collapsing. Well, there’s an 18th century adman’s line for you, and in any case if they had guffawed enough to bring the house down, it’s likely they would have missed some of the jokes.
For although Sheridan’s satire on hypocrisy, malice and venality is a very funny play, it’s a very wordy one too, and one has to listen carefully to appreciate the put-downs of Lady Sneerwell and the rest of her back-biting chums.
The plot is by no means straightforward: Sir Oliver devises a test of character for his two nephews, the spendthrift Charles and rakish Joseph, both of whom are in love with Maria, to decide which will inherit his fortune. But the story opens with Oliver’s brother, Sir Peter Teazle, Maria’s guardian, bemoaning the recalcitrance of his new, much younger wife, who has fallen in with the gossips.
Led by Joseph Marcell as Sir Peter, the cast master Sheridan’s pulsating exchanges with admirable clarity, even while speaking at pace, and their diction, for the most part, is a model of voice projection.
They are versatile too, performing more than one role, among them Alex Phelps doing a clownish turn as an unnamed drunkard as well as a sideline to playing the major character of Joseph, who wants the reputation of benevolence "without the expense", and Ayesha Griffiths switching from goodie Maria to a remarkably convincing Weasel.
Others have some great lines too, many of them for Garmon Rhys as Charles, who complains that paying his creditors "will only encourage them." Discovering Lady T in a possibly compromising situation leaves him with an open mouth big enough to swallow an orange. That lady, spiritedly played by Lydea Perkins, has already confessed that she "bears no malice against the people I abuse."
Directed by Sean Aydon, Emily-Jane McNeill (Lady Sneerwell), Tony Timberlake (Sir Oliver) and Guy Dennys (Rowley) complete a fine, well choreographed crew.
Yet somehow, the whole thing does not quite come together, does not quite develop a momentum, especially before the interval, when a little more stage improvisation would help. The main weakness of the production arises, however, as a result of presenting the gossips as if going for the gold medal in silliness, which rather takes the sting out of their vindictive cattiness.
Sarah Beaton’s set complements the flouncy character of the piece, with more pink than in a girlie dream, and candy floss candelabra, and her costumes have a likeable zaniness without becoming ridiculous. I wish the scandalmongers had taken the same approach.
The play continues its 2024 UK tour to York, Southampton, Prescot (Merseyside), Cheltenham, Northampton, Darlington and Oxford until Saturday 8 June.