Alex Phelps’s Joseph Surface, left, and Joseph Marcell’s Sir Peter Teazle in Tilted Wig’s The School For Scandal. Picture: Anthony Robling
WHEN The School For Scandal premiered at Drury Lane in 1777, the audience laughed so loudly that a passer-by thought the building was collapsing.
Roll forward to 2024, when Sean Aydon’s 1950 setting of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy of manners fails to bring down the house. “They’re finding themselves funnier than we are,” came one barb of Dorothy Parker bite over the interval drinks.
It had looked so promising, from the stellar casting of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air butler Joseph Marcell as the lordly Sir Peter Teazle to the programme design in the style of the Town & Country high society fashion magazine. Anthony Tittle, editor in chief, Henry Tattle, editor at large, Ted Talk, production director; you get the picture. Never judge a play by its programme cover, however.
“We felt that what our audiences needed more than anything was an evening of pure fun,” reckoned Aydon in the wake of the pandemic gloom. “An evening of aural and visual pleasure without a moment of darkness…”
Darkness is indeed absent from Sarah Beaton’s set and costume designs. A plethora of peach drapes, three peach ceiling lamps, and blue-and-white checkerboard floor tiles rather than regulation black and white, set the tone, but that mood board is muted. Peach is not peachy but pallid.
Out go 18th century wigs and ruffles that “can feel like a barrier”, reasons Aydon, but equally “it didn’t feel right to set it in the modern day as the world of the play has very different rules to our own, particularly with regards to marriage as a financial agreement”.
Wanting to retain a sense of Sheridan’s gossip-driven milieu being one of wealth, style and the height of fashion, Aydon settled on the mid-20th century as a “great place aesthetically”, whose vibrant colours and evocative textures could be appreciated “while knowing we are not in our 21st century world”.
For all the witty detail, such as the three phones on a row of plinths that emphasise the ever-bubbling babble of society chit-chat, the new setting remains a barrier to the highly mannered 18th century comedy being funny.
No feeling is more deflating on a night at the theatre than a comedy failing to spark, when laughs are as muted as those peach drapes. Audiences have to connect, to bond, to care, to warm to characters, but The School For Scandal is all surface – and not only in having three characters by that surname – and surface is not enough.
Snappy dialogue matters more than a snappy dress sense. Compare and contrast with Richard Bean’s revitalisation of Carlo Goldoni’s 1746 Italian comedy The Servant Of Two Masters, relocated to 1963 Brighton as One Man, Two Guvnors with a scabrous new script.
It did everything that Aydon craves for Tilted Wig’s The School For Scandal: “Theatre is important for many reasons: it can challenge us, provoke us, shock us, teach us to question the world around us. But it can also provide deep and unadulterated joy.” True for that Bean feast of comic chaos, but not here.
Sheridan’s names for his “outrageous characters”, from Snake to Weasel, Backbite to Careless, Lady Sneerwell to Mrs Candour, promise more than they deliver in this slow-moving account of Sir Peter Teazle (Marcell) believing that his young wife, the country maid Lady Teazle (Lydea Perkins), is playing away from home, as Lady Sneerwell’s scandalmongers spread the word. Not true, but if he thinks she is, why not give it a go, she decides.
Characters come and go, come and go again, the words pile up, the laughs don’t, as Aydon’s wish for us to “celebrate the joy of being alive” is unfulfilled, for all the striving of Marcell’s Sir Peter, Garmon Rhys’s Charles Surface/Benjamin Backbite and Emily Jane McNeill’s Lady Sneerwell.
There is one exception to this frustrating experience. Having delighted York audiences previously in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s Twelfth Night and York Theatre Royal & Tilted Wig’s Around The World In 80 Days, Alex Phelps parades his comic craft once more with delicious timing, peacock elegance and physical comedy chops worthy of a Chaplin, Wisdom or Wall, both as the manipulative, hypocritical Joseph Surface and in a tipsy, scene-stealing cameo as Bumper.
An Act Two scene with Phelps’s Joseph, Sir Peter and Lady Teazle, involving a chaise longue, a screen and a cupboard, is the one moment of “unadulterated joy”. Elsewhere, alas, Sheridan’s top of the fops comedy feels dated, and it hasn’t dated well.
Tilted Wig in tandem with Malvern Theatres and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, present The School For Scandal, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday; 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Katherine Lea: Making her Hotbuckle Productions debut in Pride & Prejudice
BUCKLE up for Austen’s sister act, Shakespeare’s battle of the sexes and Sheridan’s scandalous comedy of manners, plus music, art and poetry in the library, baroque and blues concerts and tragic opera, advises Charles Hutchinson.
Ryedale play of the week: Hotbuckle Productions in Pride & Prejudice, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
IN artistic director Adrian Preater’s humorous, multi role-playing adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, Hotbuckle Productions enter the world of the Bennets.
From headstrong Elizabeth to proud Mr Darcy, rich characterisations abound as five sisters deal with marriage, morality and misconceptions. “Hotbuckle up for the carriage ride of your life” with Joanna Purslow, Tomas Mason and company newcomer Katherine Lea. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Patricia Qua: Ceramicist and graphic designer taking part in York Open Studios for the first time in Hempland Drive, York
Art around every corner: York Open Studios, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm
AS many as 156 artists and makers who live or work within a ten-mile radius of York will be welcoming visitors to 106 workspaces to show and sell their art, ranging from ceramics, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery and mixed media to painting, print, photography, sculpture, textiles, glass and wood. Among them will be 31 new participants. Full details and a map can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk. Look out for booklets around the city too.
Keeping an eye on things: English Touring Opera in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at York Theatre Royal
Opera of the week: English Touring Opera in Manon Lescaut, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm
ENGLISH Touring Opera returns to York in Jude Christian radical production of Giacomo Puccini’s heartbreaking Manon Lescaut, for which she brings incisive direction to her sharp, poetic new translation.
Puccini’s 1892 breakthrough hit presents a devastating depiction of a woman wrestling with her desire for love on her own terms and the rigid double standards imposed on her by society. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
London Obbligato Collective: Opening the York Baroque+ Day at the NCEM
Classical concert of the week: London Obbligato Collective, York Baroque+ Day, National Centre for Early Music, York Saturday, 12 noon
FORMED by Masumi Yamamoto, the new London Obbligato Collective focuses on “accompanied harpsichord sonatas”, where the harpsichord is given the solo role within the trio sonata texture, highlighting and enriching the colours and nuances of the instrument.
Next Saturday’s programme includes 18th century music by Felice Giardini, Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Lydea Perkins, as Lady Teazle, and Joseph Marcell, as Sir Peter Teazle, in Tilted Wig’s The School For Scandal. Picture: Anthony Robling
Touring play of the week: Tilted Wig, Malvern Theatres and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, present The School For Scandal, York Theatre Royal, April 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 7.30pm Saturday matinees
JOSEPH Marcell, fondly remembered as Geoffrey the butler in the American comedy series Fresh Prince of Bel Air, stars in Seán Aydon’s new production of Richard B Sheridan’s comedy of manners The School For Scandal, where gossip never goes out of fashion.
Marcell plays Sir Peter Teazle, who believes his young wife is sleeping with someone else. Not true, but she is starting to think that if her husband believes it, she should give it a go. After all, if you are going to cause a scandal, you may as well enjoy it. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Florence Poskitt: Stepping in to play Kate in York Shakespeare Project’s The Taming Of The Shrew
Seventies’ Shakespeare play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Taming Of The Shrew, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday
IN a late change of cast, actor-musician Florence Poskitt, from the York musical comedy duo Fladam, is taking over the principal role of Kate in Maggie Smales’s production of Shakespeare’s controversial battle of the sexes, now set in 1970.
A psychedelic world is opening up, promising peace, love and equality, but Kate was born to be wild and wants a voice of her own. The times they are a’changin’ and the old order is dead…or is it? Let battle commence. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Redfish Blues Band: Returning to Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Redfish Blues Band, Ryedale Blues Club, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 25, 8pm
NOMINATED for Blues Band of the Year and Blues Album of the Year in the UK 2024 Blues Awards, Redfish Blues Band return to Malton with Christian Sharpe on vocals and guitar, Steve McGuckin on Hammond, Rod Mackay on bass and Steve Gibson on drums.
As witnessed on their Together Is Better album and Soho Rising (Girls, Girls, Girls) single, they play a delicious, bubbling gumbo of blues, soul, gospel and funk in live performances defined by energy and restraint. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Kai West’s poster for Bull’s Live At The Library day on May 19, based on the Cluedo board game design
Gig announcement of the week: Bull present Live At The Library, York Explore Library & Archive, Library Square, York, May 19, from 12 noon
YORK Explore and Please Please You team up with York band Bull for a day of music, art and poetry to celebrate Explore York’s tenth birthday and raise funds for York’s libraries. The climax will be a 6.30pm to 10pm gig by Bull, Marnie Glum, Rowan and performance poet Stu Freestone (tickets, tickettailor.com/events/exploreyorklibrariesandarchives/1216274).
Free activities include open mic-style performances run by Bull frontman Tom Beer in the Marriott Room from midday, featuring Gabbie Lord, Maggie, Gilles, She Choir, Filipe, Old Time Rags, Eve Thomas & Co and more, plus art workshops for all ages hosted by Izzy Williamson (lino printing, 1pm) and Bull bassist and illustrator Kai West (T-shirt design and screen printing, 12 noon to 2pm) in the Garden Room, with donations welcome.
“Joseph Surface is selfish, hypocritical, vain, manipulative,” says The School For Scandal actor Alex Phelps. ” I’d say he would think he’s quite charming too!” Picture: Anthony Robling
GOSSIP never goes out of fashion, whether in the 1770s, 2020s or 1950s, the new setting for Tilted Wig’s production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s Georgian comedy of manners The School For Scandal.
“We wanted to allow our audience to get to as close to the heart of the play as possible and sometimes the baggage that goes with 18th century theatre, all the wigs and ruffles, can feel like a barrier,” reasons director Sean Aydon, ahead of next week’s run at York Theatre Royal.
“The actors of the 1770s would be wearing the height of fashion and we wanted our audiences to get a sense that these people were wealthy, stylish and take great care of their personal appearances.
“However, it didn’t feel right to set it in the modern day as the world of the play has very different rules to our own, particularly with regards to marriage as a financial agreement.”
Sean continues: “We felt the middle of the 20th century would be a great place aesthetically as our audience could enjoy the vibrant colours and evocative textures, appreciating its style while knowing we are not in our 21st century world.
Alex Phelps’s Joseph Surface, left, seeks to deceive Joseph Marcell’s Sir Peter Teazle in Tilted Wig’s The School For Scandal. Picture: Anthony Robling
“It also allows us to play with some recognisable comedy tropes from the Fifties, including some rather brightly coloured telephones.”
Aydon’s cast is led by Joseph Marcell, once the butler in NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, now the lordly, wealthy aristocrat Sir Peter Teazle, who believes his young wife is sleeping with someone else. Not true, but if her husband believes it, she may as well give it a go.
Enter into the scandalous scenario one Joseph Surface, played by Alex Phelps, whose adroit comedy talents last graced the York stage in February 2023 in Tilted Wig’s touring collaboration with the Theatre Royal in the circus-themed Around The World In 80 Days in the dual roles of the Ringmaster and the unscrupulous globe-trotting Phileas Fogg.
Earlier Alex had stolen the show when playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek with such brio in Joyce Branagh’s Jazz Age take on Twelfth Night for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre at the Eye of York in June 2019.
Introducing his latest role as Joseph Surface, Alex says: “Lots of things are going on beneath that surface. He’s selfish, he’s hypocritical, he’s vain, he’s manipulative. I’d say he would think he’s quite charming too, which is a deception. That’s his undoing in a way, thinking he’s got it all going on, but then it all begins to unravel.”
Alex Phelps in the role of the Ringmaster/Phileas Fogg in York Theatre Royal and Tilted Wig’s co-production of Around The World In 80 Days in 2023. Picture: Anthony Robling
Phelps’s Surface succeeds in convincing Sir Peter that he is the epitome of goodness. “Initially it goes incredibly well for him, and he manages to get inside Sir Peter’s head, but then he tries to seduce his wife.”
Wrong move. “The reason I love playing this kind of character is that they have so far to fall. That lovely twist of someone thinking they’re the best thing in the world and convincing everyone else of that too, but then they begin to fall very quickly, as they try to be high status but do so in a way that betrays them. When you play against that barrier, it becomes funnier.”
Alex is working with director Sean Aydon for the first time. “It’s been really wonderful,” he says. “We discovered that Sean had been in the third year at my drama school – Manchester School of Theatre – when I was in my first year, but you don’t really mix with the third years, who are busy doing plays, so I didn’t get to know him there. It’s only now, ten years later, that we’ve done that.”
Alex has revelled in Sean’s adaptation. “The language has stuck entirely to its period, with Sean not trying to change its 1777 style. Sheridan’s razor-like wit really comes through, but what Sean has done is set it in 1950 with a minimalist set with three telephones on plinths,” he says.
“Like Richard Bean did so well with One Man, Two Guvnors [relocating Carlo Goldoni’s play from 1746 Italy to 1963 Brighton], in Sean’s version, 18th century social conventions for men are still there in 1950, but what Sheridan did was to give women incredible power in the play: they are the driving force.”
Alex Phelps, middle, back row, playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s Twelfth Night in York in 2019
Working on stage with Joseph Marcell has been rewarding too. “I’m blessed in the sense that each night I get back to sit back and learn from him and his skills and his crafts. He’s been at the RSC [Royal Shakespeare Company], on the board at Shakespeare’s Globe, and he has such incredible amount of experience, I would be a fool, as someone who loves this craft, not to watch him and learn from him,” he says.
“Sometimes, I’ll sit there with puppy dog eyes, thinking, ‘gosh, I’m on stage with one of the greats, someone with comedy in his bones’. He’s a lovely man and a great actor.”
Alex has learned to be alive to the unpredictability of live performance, how a show, especially a comedy, can change from night to night. “When you’re on stage, all your senses are heightened; you listen to see if the audience is coming with you, if a laugh makes something work. It’s incredibly elusive because it’s different every night. Like a bar of soap, sometimes it slips, but sometimes you catch it!”
Tilted Wig in tandem with Malvern Theatres and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, present The School For Scandal, York Theatre Royal, April 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Joseph Marcell’s Sir Peter Teazle in The School For Scandal. Picture: Ant Robling
THE last time Joseph Marcell played York Theatre Royal, the March 2020 visit of Alone In Britain was stopped mid-run by the imposition of Covid restrictions.
Next week, he returns in Tilted Wig’s production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy of manners The School For Scandal in the lead role of Sir Peter Teazle, who believes his young wife is sleeping with someone else. Not true, but she starts to think that if her husband believes it, she should give it a go. After all, if you are going to cause a scandal, you may as well enjoy it.
Now 75, Saint Lucia-born actor and comedian Marcell is best known for his NBC sitcom role as Geoffrey, the snooty butler, in The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air from September 1990 to May 1996.
His other TV credits include Mammoth and I Hate You for the BBC and this year he is to appear in Candice Carty-William’s Queenie on Channel 4.
His prolific stage credits include the Young Vic’s Hamlet with Cush Jumbo; Kathy Burke’s Lady Windermere’s Fan; extensive work with Shakespeare’s Globe, such as the titular role in Bill Buckhurst’s King Lear and Derek Walcott’s Omeros, as well as seasons at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He is taking to the road in Seán Aydon’s staging of The School For Scandal after starring in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s debut feature film, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.
Alex Phelps and Joseph Marcell in a scene from Seán Aydon’s production of The School For Scandal. Picture: Ant Robling
Here he discusses his latest stage role; The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air; Sir Patrick Stewart; leaving electrical engineering for theatre; Saint Lucia and Queenie.
How does Sir Peter Teazle fit into the plot of The School For Scandal?
“Sir Peter is an aristocratic, wealthy and well-respected lord. He decided to marry. A country girl was chosen after a fairly long courtship. The difference in their ages and outlook has become a constant issue.
“Lady Teazle has become a full member of the WITS, a set of gossip mongers. Sir Peter is at his wits’ end. This school for scandal is the bane of his life and the cause of the endless bickering. However, he loves and cares for Lady Teazle.
Would you agree with Sheridan’s 1777 play being called “one of the greatest comedies ever written”?
“Yes, I would agree. The language, settings, characters and themes are amusing. And at the time of the play’s first production that aspect of comedy had not been enjoyed by a British audience.”
What differentiates Tilted Wig’s staging of The School For Scandal from past productions?
“We are set in the 1950s. Although we are not in wigs and frock coats, the sentiment of those times as best as we can imagine is fully respected. The characters are of a time gone by and we are totally respectful to the language, because without that there is no play The School For Scandal.”
Lydea Perkins’s Lady Teazle and Jospeh Marcell’s Sir Peter Teazle in The School For Scandal
Will today’s audiences be scandalised by The School For Scandal?
“I am not too sure of that. But I am certain that within the world of the play a modern audience would empathise. Gossip and scandal to me is not the actual story; it’s the embellishments that happen in the retelling of the tale. We, a modern audience, really do understand the importance of ‘fact-checking’.”
What is the best bit of gossip you have heard about yourself?
“That I am an American actor. That I am married to an American woman from California and a British woman from Berkshire at the same time.”
How did a young actor born in Saint Lucia and living in London get cast in an American TV comedy, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air? Didn’t Patrick Stewart have something to do with it?
“Ah, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. Well, I was touring the Universities of Southern California with an organisation called ACTER (Alliance for Creative Theatre and Research), which was created by Sir Patrick Stewart and Professor Homer Swander, of UC [University of California] Santa Barbara, under the auspices of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Tilted Wig’s poster image for The School For Scandal
“We were playing in Los Angeles in 1987 in a five-person production of Measure For Measure directed by Patrick Stewart. I played Angelo and three other roles. This flagship company was created for actors who had played leading roles in the plays of William Shakespeare, and our presence in Los Angeles, especially under the RSC banner, was a theatrical event. Anybody who was anybody came to the theatre over those days.
“Then, in 1990, Brandon Tarticoff (NBC) and Quincy Jones decided to produce the show The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. They needed an English butler and one of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Someone remembered me as Angelo in Measure For Measure; searched and located me, and then made me an offer, which I would have been foolish to refuse. So yes, Sir Patrick Stewart created the space for me. And for that, I am very grateful.”
Are you still recognised from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and do you keep in touch with co-star Will Smith and the cast?
“Yes, I am very much recognised. From America to Zimbabwe. Wherever in the world I visit. We do all keep in touch and have a biannual lunch in Malibu, California. These reunions are fun.”
How much of a culture shock was it when you and your family moved from Saint Lucia in the Caribbean to Peckham in London in the mid-1950s?
“My father had been resident for a year before the family joined him. We arrived via Genoa, Italy, to Waterloo, London, in November. The fog and the cold temperature was a shock but the denuded trees with no leaves was astonishing. The paraffin heaters took a long time to get used to. Having to play cricket in the rain was boring.”
Last time at York Theatre Royal for Joseph Marcell: Playing Inspector Esherick in Alone In Berlin in March 2020
You trained as an electrical engineer, so how did the acting start?
“Purely by accident. There was a theatrical event in London at that time called The World Theatre Season, created by a man called Michael Saint-Denis. I went to a play by the American Negro Theatre. I believe the play was called Black New World. They were later to become the lauded Negro Ensemble. That was it for me. I found my road to Damascus. I said goodbye to electrical engineering.”
Your TV break came in Empire Road, a contemporary soap with an almost completely black cast, on the BBC in 1978. How difficult has it been to get diverse roles?
“In my opinion, I believe it is more difficult in these times. The loss of the repertory theatres and the advent of streaming has not been helpful. There’s nowhere to learn and practise the craftsmanship required.”
The last time you were appearing at York Theatre Royal in Hans Fallada’sAlone In Berlin, the theatre had to close mid-run because of the Covid epidemic. How much of a disappointment was that?
Joseph Marcell: Returning to York Theatre Royal
“A great disappointment. The role of Inspector Esherick, a detective in 1930s’ Berlin, was a dream of a role for a non-white actor. The director, James Dacre, had the imagination to cast me in that role. Very brave of him too. Such a talented director. In one move the diversity aspect was vanquished, for a while.
“And yes, the Covid pandemic did cut us off in our prime. Thankfully we have all survived and are in good health. Yet Alone In Berlin was a tremendous production and should have had a much longer life.”
You will next be seen on TV in Queenie, an adaptation of Candice Carly-Williams’s bestseller, on Channel 4. Who do you play?
“Grand Pa Wilfred. Of ‘the Windrush Generation’, he’s a lovely man who has embraced the situation in which he finds himself. One of the unsung heroes of the Caribbean migration to the United Kingdom.”
Tilted Wig in tandem with Malvern Theatres and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, present The School For Scandal, York Theatre Royal, April 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
A quartet of questions for director Seán Aydon
Seán Aydon: Directing Tilted Wig’s production of The School For Scadal, set in 1950
Are you doing your production in period or in a modernised setting?
“We wanted to allow our audience to get to as close to the heart of the play as possible and sometimes the baggage that goes with 18th century theatre, all the wigs and ruffles, can feel like a barrier.
“The actors of the 1770s would be wearing the height of fashion and we wanted our audiences to get a sense that these people were wealthy, stylish and take great care of their personal appearances.
“However, it didn’t feel right to set it in the modern day as the world of the play has very different rules to our own, particularly with regards to marriage as a financial agreement. We felt the middle of the 20th century would be a great place aesthetically as our audience could enjoy the vibrant colours and evocative textures, appreciating its style while knowing we are not in our 21st century world. It also allows us to play with some recognisable comedy tropes from the Fifties, including some rather brightly coloured telephones.”
Would you agree that Sheridan’s play is “one of the greatest comedies ever written”?
“I think it’s absolutely one of the best comedies ever written! You can see so many hallmarks of contemporary comedies and the great plays and films of modern times. It’s a classic sitcom plot with wicked wit, alongside slapstick, farce and some very silly physical comedy.
“Working on it, it seems easy to see its influence on so many of our favourite comedies from Blackadder to Noises Off.”
What differentiates this staging of The School For Scandal from past productions?
“This production really puts the relationship between the actors and the audience first. It is truly theatrical, an experience you can’t have on your sofa. At the same time, I think our new setting will make it feel very easy to relate to and understand from the very off while celebrating everything that makes this play exceptional.”
Will today’s audiences be scandalised by The School for Scandal?
“I don’t want to spoil anything, but those ghastly scandal-makers get what they deserve. In that respect it feels very contemporary; as a nation, we’re still pretty obsessed with the gossip columns!
“But I think our audiences will leave feeling rather warm and fuzzy – and with sore sides of course.”
