It’s not often you get to see Stephen Merchant hiding out from the police in a Finsbury Park hotel room in his pants. On stage, in front of a full house, for his West End stage debut no less. But thanks to Richard Bean’s new West End production, this becomes a hilarious reality.Merchant plays Ted – a man from a tiny village North Cerney outside Cirencester – with big ideas. Ted enlists his best mate Morrie up in London (Steffan Rhodri) to help him record a tape that will change the world with a utopian message. Or so he thinks.
Bean’s production safely sticks to a tried-and-tested British formula for a comedy: two frustrated men setting up camp in a ramshackle hotel room prepared with no more than a hair-brained scheme as things get worse and worse. And worse.
The comedy gets progressively darker throughout, as trays of sandwiches are thrown in fits of pique, rants about cheeseboards ensue and all is not what it first appears. Ted’s lies are cleverly unearthed in such a manner that the play builds to a ludicrous crescendo as the authorities creep ever closer to their hiding place. Morrie stays by Ted until the end when the jig is up and he is forced to hand himself over to the authorities for his wrong doings.
Steffan Rhodri’s Morrie provides a calming Cockney geezer counterpart Merchant’s Ted – very much a typically Merchant-style character. Merchant does not disappoint and does what he does best as the frenetic, erratic Wiltshire-tinged Ted.
All in all, a ridiculous, crowd-pleasing and touching comedy about friendship and the lengths you’ll go to to tell a fib to make a friend feel better. Even when the police are outside your hotel room. Think Fawlty Towers meets One Foot in the Grave.
The Mentalists is on at Wyndam’s Theatre until 26 September. To book, visit:
http://www.wyndhamstheatre.co.uk/
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