The genre farce is nowhere near as popular as it was in the 1950s and ‘60s when the likes of actor-manager Brian Rix produced a record-breaking sequence of long-running farces on the London stage.
The art form has had a bit of a revival since, with Michael Frayn's Noises Off and Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors just two of the shows which continue the tradition of making audiences laugh uncontrollably.
John Goodrum’s The Comedy of Terrors had its première in 2003, and it’s now on a national tour. It involves two actors each playing different roles as they encounter situations beyond their control, which include mistaken identities, a trunk in which characters hide or are imprisoned and a death which isn’t as final as it seems.
The Comedy of Terrors starts with actor Jo Smith arriving at a theatre for an audition with director Vyvian Jones for a part in a play called Keep Your Hands to Yourself, which leads to obvious double entendres.
Jo has really been invited to the theatre by Vyvian's twin brother, Beverley, who wants her to impersonate her own twin sister, Fiona. The idea is that she’ll persuade Vyvian that Beverley hasn’t had a fling with Fiona. Actually he has, but he doesn't want Vyvian to tell his fiancée Cheryl!
The real Fiona turns up along with Vyvian—a member of the local Sons of Satan Association—and his identical brother who’s a policeman. The result is confusion, chaos and commotion as you try to unravel who’s doing what to whom.
Goodrum himself plays the Joneses, and it’s not too difficult keeping up with them. Beverley becomes Vyvian with a change of voice and a red pocket handkerchief. Putting on a raincoat and adopting a different accent turns Goodrum into a policeman ridiculously called Janet—their mother always wanted a girl—who arrives to deliver unexpected news.
Over the years, Goodrum has appeared in several farces and knows how the genre works. He’s also designed the set, a simple affair with a red curtain onto which comedy and tragedy masks are projected and which allows the actors to make entrances and exits rather than opening and closing doors all the time.
Alongside Goodrum is Sarah Wynne Kordas, who’s worked with Goodrum a number of times, most recently in another two-hander, Karoline Leach’s The Mysterious Mr Love in the 2024 Classic Thriller Season at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal. Here she revels in the opportunity of playing Jo, especially when she gets to act out an audition in an over-the-top, talent-limited way. Jo is a total contrast to the not very bright and indecorous Cockney Fiona. Goodrum and Kordas’s timing is spot-on, and they have a connection which comes to the fore whichever characters they’re playing.
Karen Henson, who was also at the helm of The Mysterious Mr Love, confidently directs a production which cleverly uses recorded sounds and lighting in the second half to move the action along.
The Comedy of Terrors can be bemusing at times. In fact, the actors themselves occasionally became confused about which character they are supposed to be addressing.
The play has some laugh-out-loud moments; at other times it’s mildly amusing. But if the point of farce is that it distracts an audience from serious matters taking place elsewhere in the world, The Comedy of Terrors certainly does that for a couple of pleasurable hours.