Comedy review: The School For Scandal

Published on Monday 17 August 2009 21:07

*** PLEASANCE COURTYARD (VENUE 33)

THE Comedians' Theatre Company has given us many terrific productions. I am not entirely convinced this is one of them, although it could be – the staging and the costumes are great and, on the face of it, the casting generally astute.

But one basic problem is that the already plot-heavy piece has, of course, undergone the savage cutting that many Edinburgh shows suffer from, leaving it as more of a prcis than a play. And to get across the intricacy of the plotting and counterplotting needs great clarity and precision, both lacking the day I saw this production.

Secondly, while I appreciate that the cast are all marvellously successful comedians and actors in their own right, thus leaving rehearsal time tricky to organise, many of them have an irritatingly tenuous grasp of the script, and dialogue that requires crispness and discipline frequently gets neither. If you plan on an over-the-top version of a play which is already over-the-top, the least you can do for your audience is define where that next "top" is.

The performances here run that famous gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. Miss Behave's Lady Sneerwell is quite brilliant; it felt like watching Margaret Lockwood play the Marquise de Merteuil. But Stephen K Amos's character (I use the term loosely, which is how he plays it) suffers badly in the cutting, and is reduced to a rather pointless and confusing comedy turn.

One of the most impressive features of previous CTC productions has been the ensemble playing. There is no ensemble here and that has to be largely the fault of director Cal McCrystal. He is an experienced, talented director and I can only assume he had insufficient rehearsal time to achieve any cohesion.

It frequently seems as if there are two or three productions on stage at the same time. I hope things will tighten up as this is obviously a show with West End potential.

• Until 31 August. Today 4pm.