Fun-filled lunch at ‘Faulty Towers’
I’m having lunch at the Mount Lavinia Hotel and I’ve just been told there might be a denture in my soup. I’m convulsed with laughter and Manuel is of no help whatsoever – he has just finished flinging garnish across a side plate and in moments will be standing on a table singing loudly in Spanish. If you’ve ever asked yourself what it would be like to actually eat at Fawlty Towers, here is your answer. Despite the missing ‘w’, ‘Faulty Towers – the Dining Experience’ is it.
It’s brisk business for John while Manuel ‘waits on a table’. Pix by Susantha Liyanawatte
Presented by the Interactive Theatre International, the critically acclaimed show ran from October 3-6 at the Mount Lavinia Hotel; multiple sold out performances proof enough that Fawlty Towers still has its fans in Sri Lanka. The show is an interactive one – the three actors who play Manuel and Sybil and John Fawlty serve you, tuck your napkin under your chin and tell you to keep your elbows off the table, if they think it appropriate they even braid your hair and oust you from your chair. They bring to life the characters in the T.V show, played so memorably by John Cleese, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs, just as we remember them.
Hapless Manuel (Geoffrey Reczek), who has an unfortunate tendency to take his orders literally (“But she told me to wait on the table, Mr. Fawlty!”) works at the hotel run by John (Paul O’ Neill) and Sybil (Karen Hamilton). John is tall (apparently every actor at Interactive Theatre International who takes the role must be 6 feet or over) and in this iteration has a weakness for gambling. Still, he lives in terror of his sharp-tongued, sharp-eyed wife Sybil. Sybil is fond of ruffled tops, eye-shadow and giving orders. Karen imitates her speech perfectly, hitting those high notes that threaten to shatter glass. Where John is brisk and Manuel is incompetent, Sybil can warm to her guests – stopping to discuss her clip on earrings with me and showing me how they could very easily decorate my shoes as well.
Together, the small cast oversee a three course meal, the show beginning while you wait to be seated and ending just before coffee and dessert. (The meal itself was delicious – from crisp prawns with wasabi mayo and a caramelised onion tart for starters, a creamy spinach soup and tender stuffed chicken for mains, followed by a dessert platter.)
A good chunk of the performance is improvised on the spot as the cast interact with the audience and it’s interesting to see how quickly people pick up the game–some of them so involved that they are practically members of the cast – allowing themselves to be hounded out of the room or sheltering Manuel from John’s wrath.
It’s a lot of fun to have a member of the cast suddenly appear by your chair, though when they’re talking to another table you’re left craning your neck to see what inspired that burst of laughter. However, they come together for several little scenes that work very well, particularly since they rope in any staff around. Apparently, the troupe rehearses with the staff in advance, preparing everyone for what’s to come – depending on the circumstances, the latter might even be required to double as a choir. All these elements ensure no two performances are the same and the show itself is designed to be site specific.
The idea for the Faulty Towers Dining Experience first took off in Australia and is now in its 16th year. Its producers call The Dining Experience an affectionate homage to the Fawlty Towers written by John Cleese and Connie Booth but say they don’t use original scripts in the show. Artistic director and company co-founder, Alison Pollard-Mansergh explained that ‘Faulty is spelled that way because when I started this show in 1997, John Cleese, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs were still young enough to have performed the roles. I didn’t want people to think they were getting the original, so I spelled it differently.
Happily, the BBC and Mr Cleese know what we are doing and we work often with the BBC.’ Currently, 8 separate casts tour the world – appearing in 20 countries this year alone, which includes an ongoing residency in London’s West End, a month at Edinburgh Fringe, and a premiere at Sydney Opera House. Hopefully, next year will bring them back to Sri Lanka for another round of performances.
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