Try to imagine Agatha Christie meets Fawlty Towers, well if you can’t you should go and see A Weekend Away at the Hotel Decevoir.
If you can imagine that combination, you should also go and see this show as you won’t be disappointed. It is a chaotic and amusing British farce paying homage to yesteryear sitcoms.
The story tells of the tension between the kitchen staff and front of house management as to which is most deserving to be in possession of the framed award to the Hotel Decevoir for best hotel and restaurant in the country.
Whilst the two fractions fight amongst themselves the hotel fills up with guests. Each guest brings a backstory of amusing complications in their lives.
In true Christie fashion the framed award gets stolen and the hunt is on to find the thief amongst the staff and guests.
We are then entertained to a rollick hour as the guests’ lives unravel in front of us under Poirot style questioning by the manager of the hotel.
The guests caricatures range from the senile old man, the rich, subjugated husband, aspirant pop star and the inflated egos of the self important. In true farce the attributes of these characters are exaggerated rather skilfully and acted the correct side of parody acting rather than over acting. A difficult skill.
The script is witty, the pace is fast moving and rumbustious with at times a chaotically over crowded stage adding to the fun of it all.
Judging by the laughter, the audience enjoyed this show as much as I did.
A Weekend Away at the Hotel Decevoir, the Surgeons Hall, Bevan Theatre.
[review rating=”4″ align = “left”]
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