Neville's Island, Duke of York's Theatre

By Megan Prosser

“We come in peace! We are businessmen from Salford!”

Megan Prosser travels to Neville’s Island, and wonders whether the natural patter of these four superb comics might have been better served by their own material.

In my passion for theatrical dalliances, this week I eagerly trotted off to the theatre for three consecutive nights.

On the Monday – “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” at The Charing Cross Theatre (review HERE). An off-West End revival of an Off-Broadway review, celebrating the songs of the Flemish Chanteur. On the Wednesday, it was “The Scottsboro Boys.” Glossy, West End theatre of the kind where two hours passes in a blink, while you sit there with your mouth slightly open in a state of total absorption.

And in the chewy Tuesday centre, sandwiched between these two very different musicals – “Neville’s Island” – the hit comedy by Tim Firth, first produced in Scarborough in 1992.

The recipe? Well, first, take four national treasures. As my colleague put it – Ade Edmonson, Robert Webb , Neill Morrissey and… “that other one.”

Regarding “that other one,” Miles Jupp is his name. You may remember him from such TV shows as “Have I Got News For You,” “Mock The Week” and “Balamory.” It is no accident that his current stand-up tour is entitled “Miles Jupp is the Chap You’re Thinking Of.”

Captain Neville (Morrissey), Marketing Manager of a Salford Office of moderate repute, and his Manchunian colleagues are on an Outward Bound weekend arranged by Blue Sky Outdoor Ltd. Their boat having sunk, and the brilliant Ade Edmonson’s £300 rucksack having floated away, they find themselves stranded one mile from the hotel, on a tiny, damp island surrounded by pike. We the audience are thrust into a kind of saggy Lord Of the Flies pastiche, where schoolboys have been replaced with Middle-aged, Middle-Class, Passat-Driving Middle Management.

The fantastic Edmonson, managing somehow throughout to keep his bitter and sarcastic character “Gordon” on the right side of likeable is plaintively missing his duvet (“it’s 13 tog!”), and all four men are starting to worry what the rest of the office will say if they traipse back, soaked through, in the middle of the night.

So, what has changed for characters Angus, Roy, Gordon and Neville since their stage premier in 1992? Do these repressed, polite business men still exist 20 years on? The script certainly avoids easy innuendo that a similar script commissioned, say, yesterday, would have certainly journeyed into. There’s no swearing whatsoever, nicely mocked by Jupp when the closest he gets is going red and stating through pursed lips that he is “terribly, seriously, SERIOUSLY” cross.

My suspicion is, that you would rather watch these four comics for two hours just sit in chairs on the stage and talk as themselves. Their natural patter would most likely be fresher, and certainly more tongue-in-cheek than the rather staid script. But that said, the jokes are regular and provoke anything from a chuckle to a decent belly-laugh. My companion for the evening was a Kiwi, and although she didn’t get my favorite Brit gag of the evening - “Heaven. It’s a Kingdom! Bright, big walls! Like York!” - she didn’t find the humour so English that she couldn’t enjoy it.

Realistically (if it is necessary to talk realistically about a slapstick comedy), after a couple of hours, even highly-strung Middle Managers would have run out of things to say to each other in this static setting – so naturally, petty power plays must take place, allegiances must be tested, and psychologies must be explored.

Neil Morrissey was very good, I’ve ALWAYS rated Miles Jupp, Robert Webb was expertly considered and vulnerable, showing his surprisingly broad range as an actor, and Ade Edmonson shone as the narrator, protagonist and key villain all rolled into one.

By having four, much-loved, household-name actors in this show, it’s easy to think that the success of the run will be able to rest on their natural pulling power and zest (look at “Jeeves And Wooster”, or “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”) But, all of the actors were clearly giving it their all, and there was a genuine sense of camaraderie that it was a pleasure to be party to. Is the premise better than the plot, and the actors better than some of the lines? Perhaps, but the timing is spot on and every actor really took saw the potential for an extra gag, and took the opportunity, resulting in an enthusiastic and guffawing audience.

NEVILLE’S ISLAND by Tim Firth and directed by Angus Jackson

Duke of York’s Theatre

Initially booking to Saturday 3rd January 2015

Tickets HERE

Photo credit: Yohan Persson

@postscriptjour

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