Perfect Nonsense at The Spring, Havant, REVIEW: 'A successful evening of high comedy'

PG Wodehouse had a unique talent for spinning language into soufflés of wit and invention.
Humdrum's Perfect Nonsense at The Spring, Havant.Humdrum's Perfect Nonsense at The Spring, Havant.
Humdrum's Perfect Nonsense at The Spring, Havant.

And for many years, he lived in Emsworth. Two fine reasons for Humdrum to pick up Robert and David Goodale’s adaptation of The Code of the Woosters as their latest production.

Bertie Wooster has to fight fascism and Aunt Dahlia to avoid marrying Madeline Bassett. And how could he do it all without Jeeves?

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Sean Fisher is a joy to watch as Wooster, muddling through with charm and a subtle precision in his shaping of the lines. Peter Colley is excellent as the urbane Jeeves. He also has great fun as the flirtatious Miss Bassett. Michael Gondelle takes on a formidable range of roles but is at his best as a swarthy Aunt Dahlia.

Bertie presenting the story as a play performed by himself, Jeeves and a recruited servant from his aunt’s house, a convention he never quite gets the hang of himself, creates a wealth of comic possibilities. Sometimes the pace of the production suffers as attempts to solve the staging problems interrupt the action.

Four stage hands are used to spin the scene changes around a bewildered Bertie.

This device could have been pushed harder to keep the ball in the air, developing them more as characters within the play. But that having been said, the three central performances bring home a successful evening of high comedy.

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