Theatre 2023: Jack Absolute Flies Again

 With all the streaming options on TV, my husband Rich and I don’t often go to a cinema to watch mainstream movies, although in December 2021 we did head out to watch the Jets and the Sharks battle on a large screen in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the iconic musical West Side Story.

However, we do love going to watch London’s National Theatre plays, which are filmed live performances that are then shown at movie theatres across North America.  This gives us the chance to watch West-End plays and musicals that might never make it to Toronto, with the original (often all-star) cast.  Watching a filmed version of a play always gives you the best seat in the house, with both closeups and long shots when appropriate, as well as behind-the-scenes interview segments shown before the play starts or at intermission.  Past filmed plays often show up as rentals on National Theatre At Home in case you miss the limited screenings (usually two per play).

Last year we saw Jodie Comer’s tour-de-force performance in Prima Facie (Latin for “burden of proof”) where she held us breathlessly enthralled for almost 2 hours with no intermission. The one-woman play deals with a brash, intelligent, and successful defense attorney whose views on the fairness of the legal system related to sexual assault radically changes when she herself is date-raped and seeks justice. Less to our liking was Straight Line Crazy, the biographical play about Robert Moses (1888-1981), New York’s head urban planner and Parks Commissioner between 1934-1960.  Moses’ bullying personality and undeterrable drive led to the construction of highways and bridges across New York City. This happened often at the expense and displacement of poor, under-privileged and predominantly black residents who resided in the path of the construction. Ralph Fiennes did a fine job portraying Moses, but perhaps because the character came across as so obnoxious and unsympathetic, we just did not enjoy this play as much.

The first National Theatre play that we watched in 2023 was a delightful comedy called Jack Absolute Flies Again, co-written by Richard Bean, the playwright behind the comedy One Man Two Guvnors, and actor Oliver Chris who we have seen in several other National Theatre plays. Jack Absolute Flies Again is a modernized reimagining of a famous 1775 “Comedy of Manners” play called “The Rivals” by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Comedy of Manners plays were popular during the Restoration period (1660-1710) and were witty comedies that mocked behaviour, speech patterns and manners of various social groups, especially the upper class.  They usually featured bawdy, sexually explicit (for the times) dialogue, rakish behaviour, gossip, intrigue, scandals, rivalry, as well as romance, love and marriage.  Stock characters included pretentious fops or dandies, clever but duplicitous maids who mishandle letters and messages, schemers, jealous lovers, and rivals for the affection of the female lead.

Although a bit past its heyday, Richard Sheridan wrote The Rivals in the Comedy of Manners style with all its expected tropes.  The heroine is Lydia Languish, a young heiress who feels it would be romantic to give up her fortune and marry a poor man for the sake of love alone.  To pursue her, wealthy army Captain Jack Absolute pretends to be the penniless foot soldier Ensign Beverley.  At the same time, Jack’s uncle Sir Anthony Absolute and Lydia’s aunt Mrs. Malaprop try to force a financially beneficial arranged union between Jack and Lydia, which Lydia adamantly resists. Two other rivals (unsophisticated landowner Bob Acres and Irish baronet Lucius O’Trigger) vie for Lydia’s affections. A secondary romantic pairing involves Lydia’s cousin and Sir Anthony’s ward Julia Melville, who is engaged to Jack’s best friend, the insecure and unreasonably jealous Roy Faulkland. A final romantic complication is introduced when Mrs. Malaprop writes anonymous loves letters to O’Trigger, the object of her infatuation, but Lucius believes the letters are from Lydia. Mistaken identifies and hijinks ensue with the mischievous maid Lucy adding to the confusion.

Sheridan infuses humour in the character of Mrs. Malaprop by having her misuse words in a failed attempt to sound intelligent.  When trying to get Lydia to forget about Beverley, Malaprop says “you must illiterate him from your memory” (instead of saying “eliminate” or “obliterate”?). Mrs. Malaprop’s mangling of words became so popular that the terms “malaprop” and “malapropism” are now valid words in the dictionary.  If you search for the etymology of these terms, you will see a reference to The Rivals.

In addition to Malaprop, Sheridan’s choice of surnames for his characters invokes interesting connotations.  The name “Absolute” makes Jack seem like a strong, solid heroic protagonist while the name "Languish" portrays Lydia as the impressionable ingenue who pines for the type of romance found in books.  Acres is an appropriate name for the landowner while “O’Trigger” alludes to the impulsive, hot-headedness of the baronet who is quick to challenge perceived opponents to duels.

Moving the basic premise of The Rivals to more contemporary times, Jack Absolute Flies Again is set amidst the Battle of Britain in August 1940, and was written to commemorate  the 80th anniversary of that event.  The action takes place on the property of Mrs. Malaprop’s estate, which has been converted into an RAF air base. Jack Absolute is a brash, cocky fighter pilot and squadron leader in the RAF.  Heiress Lydia Languish is an aircraft delivery pilot, who is a feisty feminist and more than Jack’s intellectual equal. Jack’s attempts to woo Lydia are thwarted by her socialist ideals which dictate that she should love a “common man” rather than a “gentleman”.  

Lydia throws her attentions towards the grease-covered head mechanic Dudley Scunthorpe, who in turn is in love with Mrs. Malaprop’s maid Lucy.  In keeping with the main story line of The Rivals, Jack decides to impersonate Dudley to continue his pursuit of Lydia. But instead of merely creating a persona of lower status and income, Jack pretends to be another character within the play, leading to hilarious scenes of mistaken identity in the mode of a bedroom farce, but without the bedrooms.  The character of Bob Acres remains but is now a comical Australian pilot in the same squadron, while the O’Trigger character is now Sikh pilot Bikram Khattri (nicknamed Tony as "no one can pronounce his name").  While Acres vies for Lydia’s affections through ludicrous actions and gestures, Tony struggles to write love letters, both to hilarious effect.

The sub-plot of Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony trying to set up the young couple remains in this new version, as well as the malapropisms which are delivered in rapid succession. Just within one scene, Mrs. Malaprop talks about employing a little centrifuge (i.e. subterfuge), training the mammary to forget (memory), falling in love with the gardener’s appendage (apprentice) and making an involuntary emission (admission).  Some of the mistakes are subtly suggestive and some are outright lewd.  With the O'Trigger character no longer in this version, the romantic pairing becomes one between Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony, leading to many more humorous interactions.  The relationship between Julia and Roy remains the same as in The Rivals.

In both versions of this comedy, Lydia’s various rivals gather for what is equivalent to “a duel”.  In the Rivals, the duels are to be fought with swords with Bob Acres being goaded into challenging who he thinks is Ensign Beverley and O’Trigger wanting to fight Jack Absolute. Playwright Richard Sheridan had firsthand knowledge about duels, since he fought two of them himself over the honour of his fiancée, suffering serious injuries in the second duel.  The newer version of the play cleverly turns this scene into a laugh-out-loud boxing match where the real Dudley turns out to be a champion boxer who doesn’t really understand why he needs to fight but is up for the challenge against the three hapless rivals. Jack Absolute Flies Again also throws in a dance interlude, as Jack and Lydia reminisce about when they first met and won a dance contest together.

Jack Absolute Flies Again makes some interesting use of the “Breaking of the 4th Wall” trope.  In the very first scene of the play, the actress portraying Mrs. Malaprop addresses the audience directly.  She intimates that she only got the part because Imelda Staunton was not available and Helen Mirren thought she was too young for the role, but that Kristen Scott Thomas would be her understudy on Wednesdays.  The maid Lucy also speaks to the audience with asides that indicate her actions are to be expected in a Comedy of Manners play.  And at one point when Jack is in total distress over an argument with Lydia, Lucy quips “Relax, it’s a comedy .. you’re going to get the girl!” These little interactions draw in the audience and makes us feel like we are part of the fun.

Despite being a comedy and a very funny one at that, Jack Absolute Flies Again never lets you forget that the action is taking place in midst of a war. Whether it is the sound of airplanes buzzing overhead, the military uniforms worn by characters for many scenes, or discussions about the war and air battles in the dialogue, the serious subject is always lurking underneath the laughter and frivolity.  To close off Act 1, the members of the RAF squadron race to their planes (off stage) and then an aerial battle is shown via video with sound and images of the pilots in their cockpits as they fight off a German air attack. By Act 2, the mood has lightened again as all the misunderstandings and mistaken identities are eventually resolved and the various sets of lovers are properly paired up again, as would be expected from a traditional romantic comedy.

Surprisingly though, this was not the end of the play.  A second German attack sends the boys back to the skies and this time, tragedy occurs. The play ends on a sad note, reminding the audience that war is not a matter of fun and games.  I felt a bit cheated by this ending, as I had come to watch a comedy and was not prepared for the abrupt change in tone, which felt tacked on and a case of “bait and switch”.

Despite my ambivalence towards the ending, in general I was happy that we were able to watch the filming of this play.  I would love to rent it to watch again if it shows up on National Theatre At Home, in order to catch more of the malapropisms that flew by so quickly.  Next up for National Theatre at Cineplex will be The Crucible, showing in March.