FAULTY TOWERS THE DINING EXPERIENCE, THE SCOTSMAN HOTEL, EDINBURGH
★★★★★
Don’t mention the war, watch out for the hamster (is rat!) and whatever you do, be ready to catch your bread roll when it comes flying through the air. Yes, Basil, Sybil and Manuel are back in Scotland with Interactive Theatre International’s award-winning evening of hilarious mealtime mayhem.
Food and laughter may go together like love and marriage but when the married couple happen to be Basil and Sybil, you can be sure dinner service will be an adventure and the laughter continuous. Welcome to Faulty Towers The Dining Experience, where Basil and Sybil with the help, or is that hindrance, of their Spanish waiter Manuel are overseeing the hotel’s evening sitting. As anyone who has ever seen the much loved seventies BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers knows, chaos and confusion is sure to reign.
A loving tribute to John Cleese and Connie Booth’s iconic TV series, Fawlty Towers, Faulty Towers The Dining Experience takes all you your favourites moments from the sitcom and weaves them into a partly scripted but 75 per cent improvised show structured around a three course meal in the hotel’s restaurant, where a betting slip, fire drill, stuffed fish and a German are just some of the things to disrupt service.
The hysterical antics of the evening are driven by a cast of three brilliant performers. They interact with guests throughout the two hour meal, always with a ready response to any eventuality that may arise. Rebecca Norris may be domineering and demanding as Sybil, one of comedy’s great battle-axes, but she also boasts an infectious warmth when dealing with her hotel ‘guests’ that ensures you can’t help but like her. Indeed, with Sybil’s braying laugh and familiar affectations down to a tee, Norris is quite magnificent. Her memory for names is also incredible, as demonstrated when she gives shout outs to everyone celebrating birthdays or anniversaries – information she has gleaned throughout the evening.
As her long suffering husband, Dave Tremaine’s Basil starts the night with a degree of calmness but quickly becomes a pressure cooker just waiting to blow. The anticipation of that moment is all a huge part of the fun. Like Sybil, this Basil is perfectly observed and mesmerising to watch. A fantastic tribute to original creation, Tremaine’s timing is spot on and his physicality priceless. As he recreates John Cleese’s signature funny walk, a well deserved round applause comes instantly.
Funny walks aside, it falls to Simon Grujich to give the most adventurous turn of the evening, clambering onto and under tables and bearing the brunt of Basil’s frustrations with bewildered grace, Grujich has again studied his character intimately and easily wins the hearts of everyone in the room.
It’s worth noting, however, that while the service may keep the laughter coming, there is no quibble about the meal itself, tasty soup is followed by a delicious chicken dish and a rich dessert.
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience has been taking the concept of dinner theatre to a new level for nearly three decades now and there’s good reason for that, it’s funny, it’s familiar, cleverly conceived and brilliantly interactive. Nobody does it better, so if you’ve ever watched Fawlty Towers and wondered what it might be like to visit Torquay’s most infamous hotel, this is your chance to find out.
Faulty Towers Dining Experience tours to Arta, Glasgow, 6-17 November & Fife Lodge Hotel, Banff, 9 November. Tickets here.
