Thark – review

Clive Francis and James Dutton in a scene from Thark. Photograph: Ben Broomfield

What ho, old bean! All tickety-boo at the Park Theatre?

Spiffing, thanks to this rollicking adaptation of Thark.

This joyously funny 1920s romp by playwright Ben Travers is a frightfully English farce in which almost every other sentence is a double entendre and toffee-nosed jolly good chaps are forever bidding each other ‘toodle-pip’ and carping on about brutes, rotters and oiks.

The back-slapping public school lingo is so delightful you’ll leave wanting to imitate it.

As for the plot, it goes something like this: Wealthy Sir Hector Benbow, Bart, MFH (played by Clive Francis, who also adapted Travers’ play) is eager to carry out a dalliance with fruity bit of skirt Cherry Buck (Lucy May Barker), but he fears being rumbled when it transpires Lady Benbow (Mary Keegan) will be arriving home earlier than expected.

Sir Hector’s problems proliferate when it emerges Thark – the family home – may be haunted. Cue ominous thunderclaps, creeky coffin sounds and hushed talk about the heebie-jeebies.

If you are looking for weighty themes and intellectual rigour, this isn’t the show for you, but Thark is recommended if you like an innocent crowd-pleasing hoot with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

The acting is good all round and the show is not overly long, with a running time of just two hours including the interval.

This is a slick production and the Park Theatre, which has only been open for a matter of months, has been well built and is surprisingly roomy.

Forthcoming highlights at the venue include The Barrier, a play about the strictly orthodox Jews of Stamford Hill, which opens late this month.

Thark is on at the Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, N4 3JP, until 22 September