Chip's Place

I've gone for the slightly non-obvious title (subtract one to get the obvious one) because that's really how I feel about it!

"The Play What I Wrote" was the title of the (one) play I went to see. I'm still not sure I quite understand the story (for reasons, see below), but I'll attempt to describe it anyway. It's a comedy. Kim and Clive are the main characters, and they used to be a comedy double act, in the style of Morecambe and Wise, on tour round the country. However, Kim has taken up writing (poor quality) plays and trying (but failing) to get them on in big theatres with big names. Clive pretends to get Sir Ian McKellen lined up to appear in his latest play, together with a big name director, and put it on in London's West End, with the idea that instead, Clive can "hijack" the performance into a comedy show, thereby reviving the double act.

That's where I get a bit blurry on the story, because the first act was so appallingly bad that I stopped paying attention, right after they did an awful take on Wayne's World, waving their hands in front of their faces and making silly noises to signal that they were going back in time. I laughed exactly 3 times - once at a verbal joke, once at a bit of physical comedy, and once because of something Tom had said in the pub earlier about Lint, that he had said something funny while I was on holiday, but he couldn't remember what it was - he could remember laughing, because it was such a shock, but not what was said. This jibed so well with exactly how I was feeling about the play at this point! There was poorly-executed slapstick, jokes that were telegraphed in some cases up to a minute in advance (the Wayne's World one was pretty obvious - the minute-long one was a topiary sculpture (is that the right phrasing? "piece of topiary"?) in the corner that so obviously was going to get its neck cut in some way.) and very bad timing - the two were talking over each other's punchlines, not letting the audience "laugh themselves out" before continuing to the next line, stilted delivery, etc. One person said at the interval that I had to like Morecambe and Wise in order to get much of the humour in the first act. I do like them - Eric Morecambe is a comedy genius. After this, I was very near to leaving! I think the main reason I stayed is so I could berate Helen for not considering the position of "man who throws frozen chickens into jet engines to test their resilience" to be worthy of an equal opportunities policy.

However, I'm glad I didn't. The second act was an enormous improvement (to the extent of appearing to be a different play - kind of like Layla by Eric Clapton), and the similarities to Morecambe and Wise became evident. Plenty of quality jokes (delivered properly!) less acting and more "just having fun on stage", and I think I even detected an ad lib line or two in there. However, possibly my favourite point (certainly the funniest) was almost entirely unrelated to the play (and I probably wouldn't have found it nearly as funny, or reacted as I did, if I'd enjoyed Act One).

Bear in mind that this was at the most serious point of the play - Kim and Clive had had such a wonderful time performing the play Kim had written, and Clive had convinced Kim that he was a perfect straight man, and Kim was just realising he could do comedy, and was describing why Clive was his perfect funny man and going on to express his respect and love his partner. The line went something like "You're perfect for it. You've got big ears, rubbery legs and a tendency to violence." This reminded both Helen and me of someone sitting not a million miles away from us at the time, and we both giggled really loudly, then realised no-one else was giggling and how inappropriate it was to laugh then. Of course a giggle loop ensued! The two of us kept setting each other off with the noises we were making trying to suppress laughter, then Tom joined in at the sight of the two of us (and after he'd waved at Lint too!), and then strangers in nearby seats started laughing at the three of us laughing! All this was through the emotional heart of the play (which we completely missed!), which only served to extend our laughter.

We eventually managed to stop (or at least limit) our laughter once the jokes started again and we had a legitimate reason to laugh. I'm still going to crack up again in work tomorrow when Christine (who was sat in the row behind me) asks me what on earth was going on at that point!
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