It's not that often that I get to sit in a theatre and laugh out loud most of the time ... but I did last night. Peepolykus' version of Madame Bovary is a delicious, quirky and surprising little treat that kept me well entertained. Javier Marzan and John Nicholson have not so much adapted the story as turned it inside out, found all the funny bits (there were none so they wrote them from scratch) and re-presented it as a four person tour de comic force.
I have never read the book, but my wife did and I listened to her tut and moan ,,, its not really a story that plays well in a modern age and frankly Madame is a bit of a flake. But that said, its an important book and a story that , while well out of its time, is worth telling. The Peepolykus absurdis style may not seem, at first, the most obvious way of getting the story on stage but it works remarkably well. Despite being slightly over long, the production belts along at one heck of a pace and the cast never falter in their presentation - the speed they must get to round the back of the set is amazing!
All in all, a fab, fun night out that still manages to deliver true poignancy, for a moment, at the end ... enough to wet the eyes in an otherwise laugh filled evening.
Brialliant
