Review: Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense

After the body count in the thriller Dead Simple at Nottingham Theatre Royal last week, there’s a complete contrast with comedy capers galore in Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, on until Saturday, writes Tony Spittles
Robert Webb (Bertie Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense. Photo by Uli WeberRobert Webb (Bertie Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense. Photo by Uli Weber
Robert Webb (Bertie Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense. Photo by Uli Weber

Direct from the West End, this “spiffingly spot-on show” is now on a national tour with Robert Webb as the bumbling Bertie Wooster kept in line by his dutiful valet Jeeves (Jason Thorpe).

This production is a real gem, whether you know P. G. Wodehouse’s original novel The Code of the Woosters from 1938, still remember the Stephen Fry/ Hugh Laurie TV series of the 1990s, or you are a first-time fan who wants to see how the Goodale brothers’ adaptation of Wodehouse’s books and style won the Oliver Award for the best new comedy in 2014.

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With three characters to carry proceedings back to mid-1930s England, the audience might feel short-changed to enjoy this whimsy.

But they got their money’s worth with Jeeves and fellow butler, Seppings (Chris Ryan), who is employed by and also charges around as Wooster’s aunt, Dahlia Travers, playing a multitude of roles with split-second timing.

Central to all this was Wooster’s heading out of town for a country house weekend where he is persuaded to steal an 18th century silver cow milk jug.

Photo by Uli Weber

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