Review: Three Men in a Boat, Rose Theatre

I hate to start with a gripe, but describing Three Men in a Boat as a riotous ‘new’ comedy seems a disservice to Jerome K. Jerome’s 1889 novel. It’s never been out of print and has been endlessly adapted for stage and screen, so ‘an old favourite wheeled out yet again’ might be more accurate. Still, you can’t criticise a ticket-chasing venue like the Rose Theatre for making the commercially sensible choice of adapting a much-loved book. Looking at the season ahead, with The Wind in the Willows and Frankenstein to come, it’s clearly a plan they’ve committed to.

What they’ve created this time is fun and lively, but it struggles to find its feet. The show sits somewhere between panto, music hall, sketch comedy, and something with more serious literary ambitions, although its search for depth and meaning remains rather vague. The leader of the gang is notably called Jerome here, rather than merely J, as in the book. One assumes this is to encourage us to consider the author behind the fiction. Jerome references a ‘Norwegian fellow’ towards the end of Act 1. Ibsen, presumably. It’s an oddly heavy theatrical in-joke in a production that, minutes later, is hurling stuffed swans and feathers into the audience and, elsewhere, revels in puns, innuendo, pratfalls, smelly cheese, fourth-wall breaking, farting, and corpsing.

The silliness pauses again in Act 2 for conversations about male friendship, marriage and, most jarringly, grief. These scenes drag and feel overly modern, therapy-driven and, frankly, unnecessary. Jerome’s novel captures men doing stupid things because that’s what men do. The joy is in witnessing it, not analysing it. Talking of pauses, there are a handful of songs dropped into the action, but this is no musical. The interludes add little, aren’t especially memorable and feel like actors ‘giving it a go’, admittedly with gusto, rather than polished, well-thought-through numbers.

Singing and tonal shifts aside, the cast are high-energy and good value. Jonny Weldon is a hoot as the flamboyantly dressed Jerome. Richard David-Caine, familiar from Horrible Histories, gives an irresistible, long-legged, gangly comic turn while also tugging at our heartstrings as a recent widower. Bronté Barbé’s short-sighted bumbling as Harris gets many of the biggest laughs. Her cross-gender casting generates some clever gags, although things become overly complicated and indulgent at one point, when Harris demonstrates his failings as a potential husband by role-playing his own wife-to-be. Then there’s Calum Donald-Bruce as Montmorency, the fox terrier. With a wonderfully expressive, expertly handled puppet, he steals the show more than once. There’s a delightful physical joke when he’s briefly caught sans dog. A puppeteer without a puppet is what, exactly? Another big moment probably counts as a spoiler, so I’ll keep it to myself.

Christopher Haydon’s direction is assured, with excellent use of the Rose’s revolving stage throughout, particularly during the opening sequence in Hampton Court Maze, which is definitely not a labyrinth. The work of movement director and comedy consultant John Nicholson is apparent too. I fear they succeed, however, despite Al Smith’s text, rather than because of it. There is a lot going on by the Thames. On top of being funny, the adaptation seems determined to uncover the truth beneath late-Victorian stiff upper lips and, to use a phrase Jerome K. Jerome would recoil from, explore masculinity. I wish everyone had resisted the temptation to explain and justify and simply let the source material speak for itself. It’s a great book. You should read it. It’s still riotously funny, and here’s the thing: it says everything it needs to.

Writer: Al Smith

Music & Lyrics, Orchestrations, Musical Direction & Sound Design: Grant Olding

Director: Christopher Haydon

Movement Director & Comedy Consultant: John Nicholson

Set & Costume Designer: Simon Kenny

Lighting Designer: Simisola Majekodunmi

Puppet Designer & Maker: Charlie Tymms

Puppetry Director: Chris Pirie

Choreographer: Simon Hardwick

Fight Director: Riad Richie

Casting Director: Juliet Horsley

CDGVoice & Dialect Coach: Claudette Williams

Associate Director: Rebecca Wear

Three Men in A Boat plays at the Rose Theatre until Saturday 10 October.