Those old enough will remember the TV series as the sitcom equivalent of hygge, a warm hug. Escape from the rat race was the driving idea behind the seventies success. Director and writer, Jeremy Sams, has adapted some of the ideas and plots of the original Esmonde-Larby scripts and without too much jiggery-pokery has given a nod to the more current concerns over sustainability. In a similar vein, Sally Tatum’s Barbara is, if not ahead of the curve, at least on the same wavelength as Rufus Hound’s, Tom Good, and needs no persuading that a better, more sustainable life, is to be had outside the daily drudge of a commuting wage slave. Thanks to Mr Sams she’s had a bit of an upgrade from compliant wife to eager partner. Rufus Hound’s enthusiastic Tom is thus well matched for his dream of realising a new life in a self-sufficient, suburban, kitchen garden.
Dominic Rowan’s Jerry, an affable team player and patient, long-suffering husband to Preeya Kalidas’, Margo Leadbetter, is the foil, the look-what-you’ve-left-behind to Tom’s escape into suburbia. A perfect husband and neighbour he is, despite having sold out to Sir (Nigel Betts) and his ilk for the latest Volvo, a thoroughly good egg. He’s played by Mr Rowan with a breezy and accommodating good nature which makes one think Margo is lucky to have him. I might add that Mr Betts and Tessa Churchard are worth the price of a ticket for their quick changes alone.
If you’ll excuse the comparison, Margo, rather like somebody created thoroughly nasty, is the kind of character writers and actors can have a lot of fun with, having little in the way of self-restraints on what they think or do. Nothing loath, Ms Kalidas gives both barrels and her Margo is, like her TV counterpart, quite capable of stealing any scene she’s in with her irritating, and for us amusing, self-confident and naked snobbery.
Perhaps the writer’s careful referencing of his source material is the one thing that holds the play back from being a play for the times. It felt occasionally as if the script had been merely cobbled together from the old television plots. Period details are well observed; for example a reference to Mateuse Rosé, the tipple of choice as the UK joined the continent as novice wine drinkers (how gauche we were) had one of the biggest laughs of the evening. The overall result is that as a standalone work it struggles for direction and cohesion. The dance at the end of act one in which they all conga around, stoned on hash cake seemed too long and irrelevant. Similarly the absurd episode of the resuscitation of a piglet, comical in itself, seemed to be merely making up for the lack of a driving theme.
Michael Taylor’s clever double-revolving set helps to keep the show flowing and nicely differentiates the differing lifestyles of the neighbours.
It’s a pleasant enough step back in time some fifty years – with a nice twist lacking from the TV series – and yet better succeeds in pointing the way for a more radical reboot. ★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles 15th October 2021
The Good Life moves on to Cheltenham Everyman 19th – 23rd October.
