But in swapping tragedy for comedy, Eyre strains too much for comic eccentricity, and as a result, the comedy threatens to congeal instead of being liberated by it.
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Jennifer Saunders is a surprising beacon of subtlety in this brash reading of Noel Coward’s Forties comedy...But this amusing, awkward production undoubtedly belongs to Saunders.
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[Jennifer Saunders is] prone to scratching herself furiously and when she struggles with flatulence she could be a refugee from a Carry On film. Above all, her comic timing is impeccable.
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The best moments come when Saunders is centre-stage, [though] the rest of the cast do ... hold their own. Rose Wardlaw’s portrayal of the anxious housemaid Edith ... is one of the few properly laugh-out-loud moments.
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Saunders gets her laughs [and] the rest of the cast get a zinger or two each. This play’s revival is, on balance, a good thing for everyone involved.
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Jennifer Saunders delights as a dotty medium...Noel Coward’s deathless comedy hits the West End in a deft, but dragging production by Richard Eyre.
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Jennifer Saunders is a one-woman tickle machine...So there is something really fitting about casting her as the spiritual medium Madame Arcati in this revival of Noël Coward's 1941 mega-hit.
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There’s really only one reason to see Richard Eyre’s revival of Noel Coward’s minor, supernatural 1941 comedy, first seen at Bath last year, and that’s Jennifer Saunders. She is simply magnificent as the eccentric medium Madame Arcati
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