Viv Hardwick discovers that bawdy comedy from the Royal Shakespeare Company is in rude health thanks to director/adaptor Sean Foley

DIRECTOR Sean Foley laughs at the thought of his new work, A Mad World My Masters, becoming the only sight that adult audiences will have of a heavyweight Royal Shakespeare Company play in the North-East this year.

“That’s been my sole ambition since I was a boy. Thank goodness the show is a good one,” jokes the man who has updated Thomas Middleton’s 1600s sexy romp into a 1950s Soho setting based on London’s infamous Flamingo Club.

Foley earned rave reviews at the RSC’s Stratford-upon-Avon base in 2013 leading to English Touring Theatre opting to take the production on tour to Darlington this month.

“The actors really enjoyed this being a big hit in Stratford, but we’ve managed to get most of the cast back for the tour. It’s quite a big undertaking because the RSC only do the plays of Shakespeare, plus a few of his contemporaries like Thomas Middleton and the odd modern one. We’re taking 20 actors on tour and we’ve also got a fantastic jazz blues singer who is worth the admission money alone,” says Foley.

He and Phil Porter have added eight songs to the production such as Billie Holiday’s Ain’t Nobody’s Business, Ray Charles’ Let The Good Times Roll and Dinah Washington’s classic tearjerker Cry Me A River.

“We reset the show in 1950s Soho in this slightly crazy cellar club and the play just happens to take place there. It’s basically a good fun evening out and this is close to Thomas Middleton’s play, but we have done a bit of work to get rid of phrases and language that people didn’t have a chance of understanding what was going on. So, we’ve streamlined the play and it’s certainly the rudest and filthiest play I’ve ever read.

“It’s really naughty and there are real intakes of breath from the audience as well as laughter.”

The satirical work features cash-strapped Richard Follywit (Joe Bannister) trying to trick his rich uncle Sir Bounteous Peersucker (Ian Redford) out of his money. Meanwhile, Mr Penitent Brothel (Dennis Herdman) plots to seduce Mrs Littledick (Ellie Beaven) with the help of prostitute Truly Kidman (Sarah Ridgeway).

“This is all about coveting another man’s wife, wanting money and desperate needing an uncle to die so that you can inherit, which are all recognisable things since time immemorial. Those are the themes dealt with in hilarious circumstances and great comic situations. I guess some people could get offended, but this show is also about hypocrisy as well,” says Foley.

He and co-writer Porter sum up A Mad World by saying: “It celebrates and castigates our obsession with sex and money – how we buy the one and make love to the other.”

The selection of the long-defunct Flamingo Club is also fascinating. Artists appearing there ranged from Ella Fitzgerald to Black Sabbath and visitor/performers included John Lennon, Billie Holiday, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix. History also says a 1962 fight between two men over model Christine Keeler led to the uncovering of the Perfumo scandal.

“If we’d have just written about these characters we’d have had another play, but this was created in 1605 and the characters are still completely recognisable. One of the fun things of the show is that people can identify with the people on stage,” says Foley.

He didn’t worry about retaining roles like Brothel and Littledick and feels that toning down these aspects of the play wasn’t necessary.

“In the words of a Kenny Everett character (Cupid Stunt), ‘It’s all in the best possible taste my darlings’. Anyone who has enjoyed anything from classic theatrical plays to sitcom and saucy 1970s films will see all of them mixed together,” he says.

Foley does bridle a little at one critic’s suggestion that A Mad World took off on the coat-tails of One Man, Two Guvnors, the award-winning National Theatre production by Richard Bean, based on the 1743 Commedia dell'arte style comedy play by the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni

“That was a total rewrite of a play anyway. We have done some work, but it’s still Thomas Middleton’s play. Anyway, to be completely specific, I have never seen that play, so I wouldn’t be in a position to copy it,” he says.

Foley points to his productions like The Play What I Wrote, the award-winning The Ladykillers and Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense as a style he’s had for many years.

The director also has the short-lived musical I Can’t Sing! The X Factor in his locker and I ask if this rare failure is something he picks over.

“The only lesson to continually learn is that you never know what’s going to happen. It’s impossible. It was a great show and everyone who came to see it – well, the vast majority of people – absolutely loved it. The show got fantastic reviews but the producers couldn’t sell enough tickets. The way it ended was as simple as that. If the show had been in the National Theatre they could have kept it on because it is subsidised, but commercial producers can’t do this. You’d give up if you spent too long thinking about things like that happening.

“It didn’t work commercially, but it did work creatively. For whatever reason, for reasons no one could fathom, not enough tickets sold.”

Not enough bums on seats... I contemplate.

“Sounds like Bums On Seats would be your ideal headline for this feature,” Foley jokes.

* Darlington Civic Theatre, Tuesday, April 14 to Saturday, April 18. Box Office: 01325-486555 or darlingtoncivic.co.uk