SIT AT ATTENTION: JEEVES TAKES CHARGE

By Georgia Chapman | @georgia_chapman99 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sam Harrison was absolutely captivating in his role(s) in Jeeves Takes Charge at the Charing Cross Theatre.

THE PLAY

“You could hear a snail clear his throat from a mile away”

Set in a beautiful Mayfair flat in the early 1900s, Bertie Wooster navigates his elite London life with his intuitive and often overstepping valet Jeeves.

A twenty-two character play, to which you will be flabbergasted, is only played by one man. Created and adapted from P.G. Wodehouse’s stories, which were published in The Strand magazine in 1923.

The script is comical, charismatic and captivating.

THE CAST

“I could’ve massacred the man”

Sam’s many roles during the play were fabulously diverse and easily understood through his fantastic and emotive body language, alongside alterations in voice, dialect and tone. For Bertie, Sam was a lot more fluid and had a higher voice, whereas Jeeves was tall, stiff, and had a lower vocal range. Even sitting next to each other, the audience could easily tell the difference between Bertie and his fiancée, Lady Florence Craye, by the way in which he pointed his feet.

It was spectacular, you can tell Sam worked hard to ensure the characterisation was easily defined.

Sam was unbelievably agile on stage, headstands on the sofa while twisting his legs round – I really need to start my YogawithKassandra again as that man was bending it like Beckham.

His comedic timing was phenomenal, especially since he had only himself to bounce off and react to. The whole crowd spent the majority of the performance bellowing with laughter.

THE PRODUCTION

From Mayfair to Easeby, a smokers room to a girls’ school, the road from Brighton to the village fair. The production does a fantastic job at recreating all these differing spaces while only using the walls surrounding the set. By utilising the frames on the wall to alter the pictures, they can contrast the spaces, notifying the audience of the change in environment. They were able to change the wallpaper by changing the tone and colour of the lights, or projecting separate wallpaper to redefine the space.

If you weren’t taking notice of the changes, there was a large, yet undisruptive, sign which demonstrated the room, i.e. Berkeley, Mayfair, helping the audience to understand even more.

It was incredibly clever while ensuing the flow of the play, especially important for a one man production.

Sadly, Jeeves Takes Charge only has a short run at the Charing Cross Theatre, but it is definitely worth grabbing the chance while you can. Sam was brilliantly funny, absolutely charming and a delight to watch – I’m looking forward to enjoying his future work.

Jeeves Takes Charge is running at Charing Cross Theatre until Sunday 6 September.

WEBSITE

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Photo Credit: Craig Fuller