COURT IN THE ACT by Maurice Hennequin and PierreVeber
Translated and adapted by Robert Cogo-Fawcett and Braham Murray
Venue: Phoenix 1987
Director: Braham Murray

Cast

Tricointe	Michael Denison
The Minister	Lee Montague
Madame Gobette	Gabrielle Drake
Madame Tricointe	Avril Elgar
With	Terence Wilton Derek Smith Trevor Cooper Roy Heather Colin Prockter Lisa Hollander Oona Kirsch Margaret Norris

Review

When in doubt, shout, has often been the principal guiding English farce, but not even the strenuous efforts of this cast can revive this three act dinosaur. Written by Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber, it has been translated and adapted by Robert Cogo-Fawcett and Braham Murray, who might have been better occupied revamping the plot.  Director Murray has set the action in the Paris of la belle epoque and sets by Stephen Doncaster and costumes by Terence Emery charmingly summon up this never-never land of cheeky mistresses and cuckolds.

The plot revolves around the judge Tricointe (Michael Denison, giving a performance that is wooden rather than sober and which fails to communicate the necessary rising sense of distress as he becomes embroiled) who falls for the charms of the chanteuse Madame Gobette (Gabrielle Drake). Masquerading as Tricointe’s wife Gobrette compromises his perfect integrity as a judge and a husband and secures his promotion through granting her favours to the Minister (Lee Montague).  Madame Tricointe is the former parlour maid and is well played by Avril Elgar, who alone in this cast does not resort to mugging and who amusingly conveys her lust for polishing and her suppressed desire for men.  “The family’s fine when the brasses shine”, she says often, with desire, and she gives us a fine picture of self-satisfaction mingled with frustration. Elgar also gives us the pathos and a sense of the cruelty without which good farce becomes merely clockwork. This short evening (subtracting two intervals I reckoned one hour fifty minutes) is lacking in ingenuity and the mistaken identity and loss of feminine garments are decorations rather than plot twists. The script also fails to exploit the pertinent moral of the perfect judge who falls from grace.  Amusing moments are provided by a subplot involving the Minister's secretary (Terence Wilton) and Tricointe’s daughter (Oona Kirsch) but the evening works in fits and starts providing only intermittent gaiety.