Review of Trial By Laughter at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

Private Eye's Ian Hislop and writing partner Nick Newman once again reunite after their hit The Wipers Times successfully transferred from TV to stage. This time they take their own Radio 4 play, Trial by Laughter, and transfer it into a remarkably slick stage play.

William Hone was, conveniently, the Ian Hislop of 1817, a satirist charged with libel (and a little added blasphemy), and charged and subjected to three trials in three days. His story told here in a witty, but occasionally slightly heavy way is the cornerstone for a lot of the now free press we see in this country. Not that this has stopped Mr Hislop himself from finding himself in the dock countless times of course.

Trial By Laughter is a curious piece which has more successful moments than failures. It does take a while to get going, despite an opening scene featuring the brilliant Jeremy Lloyd as Prince Regent, a living and breathing caricature on stage himself, portly and looking every bit the drawn work of cartoonist Cruikshank. He and Helena Antoniou as Lady Hertford provide the buoyant and larger than life humour of the play, the physical material, while the rest, is more delivered through speech. They are the perfect antithesis in comedy style presented here.

As the man of the hour, William Hone, Joseph Prowen gives a very slick performance, maybe at times too much so, its a little too perfect, not allowing the character to come out into someone you can actually like enough to justify supporting his plight. This is at odds with a much better Peter Losasso as Cruickshank, he is much more relaxed in his delivery, making the character much more enthusiastic and earnest, and easily appeals to the audience more. His is the best performance in the show.

Elsewhere there is a brilliant mix of turns from Dan Mersh, who as both Hone's drinking buddy Hazlitt, and the judge, Ellenborough, seeking to send him down, has some of the quickest switches of character, in a play that thrives on doubling or more up, with little time in between other than to grab a different coat.

Dora Schweitzer set provides a slightly cartoonish depiction of a royal court and courtroom backdrop that easily switches between venues, with more than a little help from Matt Leventhall's lighting, especially with the neat prison scenes. The star of the set though is an animated clock, which has a character all of its own, creating time passing and spinning back when the story brings a flashback to the fore. It's a brilliant concept and enhances the show greatly.

There is indeed a lot of great theatre set pieces here including swift set changes and a couple that very much form part of the story, and also adding clever comedy as a scene, for instance, is bridged by a thieving servant.

The curiosity of locational audio of the jury and those in the gallery of the court is a curious one, which, where it is relevant to the proceedings works, however, at times it can also feel like a laughter track, telling us, as a modern audience where to fully get the jokes, especially if they are more of their time. It just about works without being an uncomfortable addition, and is certainly technically impressive.

A very nice surprise from the show also is the inclusion of a few songs into proceedings and neat dance numbers, all very period in style, nicely performed and they work to break up the occasional worthy dialogue.

Director Caroline Leslie keeps the piece flowing with an eye to a good pace, which the set allows superbly, and while Hislop and Newman's script occasionally heads in the direction of being too clever for its own good, it always has a proper laugh or vulgar joke on the way to stop it becoming tiresome in its worthiness. Certainly an entertaining piece of theatre, telling a pivotal piece of British legal history.

Well staged and light enough to always entertain despite telling its tale in quite a stale way sometimes.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Monday 25th February 2019 at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.

Trial by Laughter runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 2nd March 2019 before continuing its tour. Details at https://britishtheatre.com/trial-by-laughter-tour/

Further details about Milton Keynes Theatre can be found at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

Photos: Philip Tull

Review of Friends - The Musical Parody at Milton Keynes Theatre

The One Where 2026 starts in a world of confusion. And so, 2026 is upon us and for my first trip to the theatre this year, one of my most significant reviewing challenges was to occur. Touring to Milton Keynes Theatre is Friends - The Musical Parody , based, unsurprisingly, on that little American show that ran to a few audience members for ten years. However, I confess that I was not, and have never been in that audience, never having seen a single episode of the show. However, always up for a review challenge and doing my due diligence by having a Friends superfan as my plus one, I headed to Milton Keynes with anticipation. For those unfamiliar with the show, I could say I can’t help; however, a quick review of some of the information you might need (thanks, Google and my plus one). Running for ten years between 1994 and 2004 with 236 episodes (quiz question, you are welcome), the main characters consisted of Phoebe (ditzy, writer of sad songs), Monica (in possession of an unfeasibly...

Review of Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Despite now having seen a few dance shows encompassing many different styles, I had yet to see one developed by Sir Matthew Bourne, a controversial player in his time, but as the relatively recent knighthood suggests, now very much embraced by the establishment. So, does Romeo + Juliet live up to his name, that is the question? So, first, this might normally be where I give you a brief outline of the story, but, for one, most have a general understanding of the love disaster of William Shakespeare's play already, and two, as it turns out from the Bourne production, a huge amount of what you might be familiar with has gone or been dramatically changed anyway. There is shocking complicity in murders, there are different moments of murder and gone are the warring factions of the Montagues and Capulets. Characters themselves feel very different at times also, to such an extent that even knowing the play doesn't always make it clear who is who at times. So, if all that sounds...

Review of 2:22 A Ghost Story at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

2:22 A Ghost Story continues an endless rise and run of success on the stage. This play by Danny Robins was first staged as recently as August 2021 at the Noel Coward Theatre and since then the show continued to run in London for two years, moving to four further London theatres, before eventually closing in the city to embark on this tour, which began in September last year. During these runs, the cast has constantly been updated with often populist actors, and some, which are not even associated with acting. As this reaches Royal & Derngate, now even the touring cast has been swept clean and four further performers take on the incredible success of a show. This is the second time I have seen 2:22 A Ghost Story , and it is safe to say that on that first viewing, with the previous tour cast, I was not as blown away by the play as the success seemed to warrant. The aforementioned populist casting seemed to have driven a so-so ghostly tale into success beyond its quality, and with th...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog