Only Fools and 3 Courses. Adapted from the TV series Only Fools and Horses written by John Sullivan. Directed by Mike Herbert. Comedy Dining. Teatro Vivaldi, ANU Arts Centre. February 9 and 10, dinner and show from 7pm. Tickets $70/$80/$90 depending on seat location. Bookings: 62572718.
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If you loved the longrunning British sitcom Only Fools and Horses and miss it, an upcoming show at Teatro Vivaldi might be just the ticket. Only Fools and 3 Courses, presented by British company Comedy Dining, brings the show's characters to life in a dinner theatre environment.
Producer/director Mike Herbert, who's run Comedy Dining for five years, says, "The actors perform sketches in and around the tables while the audience are eating a meal."
Patrons come to have a drink and mingle with the cast before the show begins. It's a a series of comic vignettes featuring such colourful characters as Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (played by Nick Moon) and his younger brother Rodney (Rob Cummings), dodgy London market traders full of dubious get-rich-quick schemes. There's also their elderly Uncle Albert (Moon again), forever reminscing about the war, dopey Trigger and shady used-car salesman Boycie (both played by Nick Maxwell) and Del's "significant other" Raquel and Boycie's wife Marlene (both played by LJ Reeves).
The boys might try to sell the customers some dubious merchandise - maybe an orange, perhaps a purse - during the course of the show, but nobody's dinner will be interfered with, Herbert says.
Audience interaction with the Trotters and their friends and relatives is definitely encouraged. Herbert says, "It's very much interactive - every show is different,"
The company is based in Preston, outside Manchester and has three teams of actors putting on shows all over the British Isles.
"We go as far as the Channel Islands and Ireland."
Their repertory features several dinner theatre shows including productions based on other popular sitcoms such as Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous and 'Allo 'Allo and in an era when many theatres and companies in Britain are struggling and even closing down, Herbert says he's been doing well by giving people familiar and fun entertainment that appeals to all ages.
"It's a family show," Herbert says. "It's clean honest fun, something people can relate to. Del Boy's character is trying to beat the system. The humour is ageless, it's not crude or rude and people can relate to it - it's stood the test of time."
This is the first time one of his productions has come to Australia. Herbert - who's not coming himself - says someone from a venue in Sydney had seen and liked one of their productions and invited them out and they are performing at a few places there. Coming to Teatro Vivaldi came about when a friend at one of the hosting locations mentioned it to the owners of the Canberra venue.
"The show is a perfect environment to enjoy a three-course meal."
After the show, the cast members come out again for more mingling and photos.
If Only Fools and 3 Courses does well in Australia, Herbert hopes to send another company out here next year with a production of Absolutely Fabulous.
