Theatre

Ever heard the one about the good Jewish girl who can’t face telling her controlling parents that she’s dating a gentile and so tries to hire a Jewish actor to play her ‘real’ boyfriend? That’s the premise for James Sherman’s surreal-but-sentimental, late-’80s comedy – an Off Broadway smash. Why revive it now? There’s more than a hint of nostalgia about the whole enterprise: Becs Andrews’ set design offers a glimpse of the celebrated hunk-with-baby Athena poster that became such an icon of the New Man era. If Hackney Empire starts awarding prizes to the audience members who turn up in the best retro outfits, it could have a cult kitsch hit on its hands.
But the best reason for reviving ‘Beau Jest’ is that it’s still funny, if not quite hysterically so. And Susie McKenna’s production is well cast: Lara Pulver makes a sympathetic Sarah, while Sue Kelvin (vulgarity in excelsis) and Jack Chissick (dyspepsia in extremis) excel as her bickering, smothering but oh-so-devoted parents.

The play’s three-act structure is reinforced by the provision of two intervals here – probably a mistake, since the breaks emphasise the repetitions of the plot and diffuse the energy generated by the farcical deception which serves as the action’s principal motor. The dinner table, which is such a key part of the stage furniture, also proves a bit awkward: Sarah’s therapist brother spends much of the evening with his back to audience. But if you’re looking for light hearted, retro entertainment, this is pretty good.