Although there were just twelve episodes ever made, Fawlty Towers very quickly became one of the country’s best loved comedies – well, for those who miss the heady days of Basil, Sybil and Manuel, Faulty Towers – The Dining Experience is a perfect way to relive the magic.
When the audience become diners in the “Faulty Towers” restaurant, pretty much anything can happen – because two-thirds of the show is improvised. The fun starts as guests wait to be seated. It then hurtles along in a 2-hour tour de force of gags and shambolic service as Basil, Sybil and Manuel serve a ‘70s-style 3-course meal together with a good dollop of mayhem.
For the Brighton shows, Manuel will be played by Oliver Harrison, a local actor who is an accomplished performer, specialising in devised physical comedy both as a solo and collaborative theatre maker. During his recent run playing a number of roles in Interactive Theatre International’s other five star dinner theatre experience, The Wedding Reception, I caught up with Oliver to ask him about his role in “Faulty” and his love of slapstick…..
How do you cope with all the physical comedy in Faulty Towers- The Dining Experience?
I have to say, it is quite an exhausting show but it’s one of those things that, once the momentum starts, you just have to drive it through to the end. Certainly, for Manuel particularly, he has a very physical role with Basil within the show and he spends a lot of his time running around mainly getting things wrong, but also trying to fix them. The role certainly takes a lot of stamina.
Manuel, bless his heart, he always means to do well and he always tries to impress. He’s not silly, but he just has a lack of understanding of what’s required of him, especially during the dinner. He gets quite involved with serving the food and, as you can imagine, a lot of things have the potential to go wrong, and they usually do.
A lot of what we do is scripted, even though it may not appear to be, but there are occasions when things do, genuinely, go wrong – but who can tell the difference?
Does that mean that every show is different?
There are scenes that are scripted and there’s a lot that happens between Basil and Manuel that is also scripted in that they are set routines, but within that there is a lot of room to play. Also there are lots of different Basils and lots of different Manuels that are part of the company, so I might work with one Basil who will do the routines in a certain way, and another one does them differently so, within the characters, things are never the same.
It’s a show that we never get bored of performing, mainly because it is different every time and not just because we have other actors to work with but also because we have very different interaction with each new audience.
What’s it like re-creating such iconic scenes?
To be honest, it’s a honour, I have to say. The thing is, you immediately win over the audience because we are portraying characters that they know and love which, from an actors point of view, is really pleasing. What we really want to do is to do it justice, I suppose and it’s always magical when we go into a scene and you can see the audience reaction when they recognise it.
How different is it to perform a dinner theatre show rather than traditional theatre?
It’s really great to do dinner theatre. I do a lot of the more traditional “end on” theatre stuff but with the immersive element of dinner theatre you sort of open it up to people who maybe don’t usually go to the theatre. They come along for a good night out, with some great food, and they are kind of “tricked” into seeing theatre in a way because it’s happening all around you and you’re not sat in rows just watching it in the distance.
The Faulty Towers Dining Experience takes place at the Jurys Inn Waterfront Hotel (formerly the Thistle Hotel) from May 26th – 29th with evening dining at 7.30pm (doors 7pm) and lunchtime dining at 1.30pm (doors 1pm) on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th. Tickets are available by calling 0845 154 4145 or online at bookings@faultytowers.net