Be warned. When you go to see Stephen Fry’s Latin! Or tobacco and Boys you’ll find yourself back in school. Chartham Prepatory School for boys, to be precise. Fierce insults when you do not know your Latin declensions abound, though the promise of Chelsea buns in the interview is certainly compensation enough. Fry’s darkly comic tale centers on the highly inappropriate longing of one Dominic Clarke (Barnabas Iley-Williamson) for the blonde, blue eyed Cartwright (never seen). His efforts to take over the school, seduce young Cartwright and secure his young charges a place at Ampleforth are constantly undermined by the wonderfully creepy Herbert Brookshaw (Louis Fletcher), his jaded, equally perverse colleague.
In a production with only two actors, the strengths and weaknesses of both quickly become apparent. Both performed admirably; Iley-Williamson, despite his rather abhorrent tendencies (an avenue never, and I think, rightly, fully explored), was superb at evoking the audience’s sympathy. Fletcher was equally able at doing the reverse, teasing out his rather cringe inducing lines in a way that was uncomfortably convincing. The occasional slip or line fluff can be forgiven in the wake of such impressive direction from Fiamma Mazzochi-Alemanni, though Fletchers slight tendency to drop off at the end of his lines let down what was an almost seamless performance on his part.
The set greatly contributes to the school feel that this play creates. Being invited to sit on the benches on stage, the audience becomes part of the show; in the end I was rather glad I declined to sit on one of the benches for fear for being clipped by an exercise book tossed nonchalantly by Iley-Williamson, or rapped by the cane brandished with blustery conviction by Fletcher. It was a shame that the production had been unable to source convincing prep school furniture – the desk and chair were unmistakably at odds with the classroom aesthetic Mazzochi-Alemanni clearly sought to evoke – but again, these are small qualms, and ought not to put anyone off. Latin! is a funny play, rarely performed, and this production has done the piece justice. That is reason enough to head down to the Burton Taylor and enjoy some great acting and serious seventies nostalgia.
4 STARS
