WRITTEN in 1924, the comic novel deemed "the funniest unknown book in the world" by question master Robert Robinson, at last has a full-length premiere on stage almost 80 years later.
Kenneth Williams had read an abridged version for BBC Radio 4 in 1979, as did Harold Innocent in 1987, and Riding Lights artistic director Paul Burbridge recalls Alan Ayckbourn presenting a slim-line production in the soup, sandwich and short-play slot at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
Initially published anonymously as Augustus Carp Esq by Himself, the satirical novel was in fact written by one Sir Henry Howarth Blashford, whose swipes at the hypocrisy and cant all around him are now brought to the stage by Riding Light regular writer Bridget Foreman in a barbed yet playful adaptation.
Paul Burbridge's rumbustious production begins with the rude awakening of childbirth, heard but not seen from inside a huge, closed cupboard that opens out to reveal a claret-coloured construction of canvas and four-way zips, which facilitate fast and sudden entrances reminiscent of a Punch and Judy puppet show. Truly this is a show with plenty of zip.
Sean Kavanagh's stage design is raked, just steep enough to have you worrying about props crashing over, but utterly right to convey the story's relentless downward progress as matters career out of control.
They do exactly that in the opening scene when Augustus Carp (Jonathan Race) makes his entrance aboard a bed that hurtles towards the front row, slightly off course in the manner of a speeding bobsleigh. Held back only by ropes it comes to a shuddering halt. Crash! How apt for the impact that young Carp will have.
On a stage as tight-fitting as his Edwardian waistcoat, narrator Carp sets himself up as "a really good man". Stuffing his face with cakes and buns and pastries at every opportunity, this model citizen relentlessly pursues the corruption that festers in all walks of personal and public life in suburban Peckham. Blind to his own failings, he is exposed as the ultimate hypocrite himself, while bringing down all around him in the cause of his notion of good.
Fiona Battisby, Fred Denno, Vicki Hackett and Mark Payton's maniacal raft of exaggerated characters bounce like Dodgem cars off Race's amusingly blinkered, self-important Carp, as he forever stands with his hands on his hips in self-contentment.
Hit and miss at first, Burbridge's riotous production ultimately succeeds in being madly humorous yet serious in message and purpose, always a parable as much as a satire.
Augustus Carp Esq,Riding Lights, Friargate Theatre, York, until July 5. Box office: 0845 9613000
Updated: 11:39 Tuesday, June 17, 2003
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