| The Last Laugh | Milton Keynes Theatre 12-17 February 2007 Tue-Thu & Sat eves: 7.30pm Fri: 5.45pm & 8.45pm Wed & Sat mats: 2.30pm |
Sometimes going to the theatre can be an absolute joy. To see two top class actors working their art with a fine script is a privilege. And so it is with "The Last Laugh". The play is adapted by Richard Harris from a play by Japanese playwright Koki Mitani. It explores the notion of comedy theatre through a playwright, played by Martin Freeman,who is trying to get his new play past the censor, played by Roger Lloyd Pack. We don't need names for the characters. The censor appears to know nothing about theatre and has been given the role after he lost his arm in the war. He has no sense of humour and Freeman's writer tries to explain why certain things are funny. And so this becomes almost a play within a play, and as they imagine an audience and an auditorium, we realise that we are that audience. Devices
 | | Martin Freeman and Roger Lloyd Pack |
Comedy devices are explained and then appear in the actual play. For example Freeman explains the running gag, then we realise there are several running gags throughout "The Last Laugh." Then, the censor fails to see why catch phrases are funny, before using Victor Meldrew's "I do not believe it" and C.J's " I didn't get where I am today…." My favourite gag is where the writer is trying to explain the significance of stage business and how easy it is to draw attention away from the lead, and the censor starts to effect noisy running repairs on his metal replacement hand. It sounds obvious but again it's a finely realised comic device. As the play evolves the pile of sandbags outside the windows of the censor's office pile higher and higher. The play in act two becomes a sinister psychological battle between the two. The censor tries to break the writer by suggesting more and more ludicrous alterations to his play, but when we see the censor wearing a bald head wig playing a priest to Freeman's Juliet we realise that both men are playing mind games with each other. Juxtaposition The war setting is indeterminate. It is a war where a dictatorial leader is waging war against whom we know not. Again that doesn't matter, but the juxtaposition of the realities of war and the escapism of comedy increases as the sandbags pile higher and the bombs come closer. This is clever writing which explores comedy through the medium of comedy, yet is not a stuffy intellectual exercise. It never fails to hold the audience and never once fails to entertain. Freeman is his usual understated self. He does "everyman" well LLoyd Pack establishes himself again as one of our finest character actors. The censor gives no hints of Owen Nesbitt or Trigger: the censor is a believable complex character fully realised through classy acting. I thoroughy enjoyed "The Last Laugh" as did the audience which included several Japanese vistors, perhaps familiar with the original, and both actors received a rapturous ovation. Outside the theatre I overheard a woman say, "I don't know why "Shut that door" is funny, it just is." She's having a laugh. Is she having a laugh?! | 
