Mark Rylance in Boeing-Boeing
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Boeing Cast Talk Farce & Stereotypes at WOS Q&A

Theatregoers on our Whatsonstage.com Outing on Thursday last week (15 March 2007) to Boeing Boeing at the West End's Comedy Theatre enjoyed an extra treat when five members of the six-strong cast – Mark Rylance (pictured), Roger Allam, Tamzin Outhwaite, Daisy Beaumont and Michelle Gomez – joined us for an exclusive discussion following their evening performance.

In Marc Camoletti’s classic Sixties farce, Bernard (Allam), a successful architect living in Paris, thought he could easily cope with his three air hostess fiancées. It was all a question of timetables and a reliable, long-suffering housekeeper (Frances de la Tour) who reluctantly has the role of romantic air-traffic controller. When old school chum Robert (Rylance) arrives, Bernard relishes the chance to show his wide-eyed friend his first-class operation at work. Unfortunately, schedules change, flights are delayed and a new turbo-charged Boeing aircraft is introduced, causing chaos.

Boeing-Boeing, which originally opened in London in the mid-sixties, held the world record for the longest running comedy in the West End, playing over 2,000 performances before transferring to Broadway. This production is designed by Rob Howell, with lighting by Hugh Vanstone. It is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Act Productions, Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert G Bartner and Bob Boyett.

At Thursday’s Q&A, which was hosted by Whatsonstage.com editorial director Terri Paddock, the cast talked about the challenges and the popularities of farce, national stereotypes, and the glamour of air travel.

Highlights from the discussion follow…

THE AIR HOSTESSES ON WHY THEY WANTED TO ACCEPT THEIR ROLES IN THE PLAY:
Tamzin Outhwaite: I wanted to work with Matthew Warchus (the director), and when I found out I would also be working with Frances and Roger and Mark – and I have to admit I have spent most of my adult life trying to work with Mark – I just had to do it. I didn’t know the play very well but could tell it was going to be brilliant.

Michelle Gomez: What she said. Also, I had just finished doing a film and I wanted to do something completely different and it is so good to be doing something so refreshing and fun.

Daisy Beaumont: It was a job, and I don’t get offered many of those, so I thought I’d better take it.

THE CAST ON THE CHALLENGES OF FARCE:
Mark Rylance: “I have heard people say that farce is difficult to rehearse…

Daisy Beaumont: It’s the choreography more than anything that makes farce challenging, with going in and out of doors all the time

Roger Allam: I’ve never done a farce before, I’ve done quite a lot of comedies but never a farce and one of my biggest nightmares would be to play this to a rapt silence. I would be very depressed if that happened.

ROGER ALLAM ON WHY FARCE IS POPULAR:
Last year I was in the West End doing a play called Blackbird, which was incredible, but it was very serious, and really the lightest play on in London at that time was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. And then they did See How They Run at the Duchess and Donkeys' Years here and people loved it and they realised people enjoyed seeing comedies. The West End used to offer two or three comedies at all times so there was a mixture of light and serious entertainment, and farce in particular I think will always be popular. It lightens up people’s lives and lets them forget about their worries and more serious concerns for an hour or two.

THE CAST ON THE NATIONALITY OF THEIR CHARACTERS:
Roger Allam: Mark and I are French, but we speak with British accents. We thought about being English men in Paris but I think it’s the kind of thing that works very well as French people. English farces are very funny but the most risqué thing they usually involve is a vicar being caught having too much sherry, so a sex farce works better if it’s set in Paris, with French characters. There’s also the allure of foreign air hostesses. Originally, Daisy was going to be French, so we changed it to make her Italian so that they are all international.

Mark Rylance: The reason I chose a Welsh accent for my character was to show he is not from Paris, he is from an agricultural background and feels out of his depth in the city at first, where his friend has this hectic lifestyle. It was a way of differentiating between them.

Tamzin Outhwaite: We are basically all cartoons anyway, complete stereotypes of an American, a German and an Italian woman, but that’s the fun of it – and the stereotypes have to come from somewhere!

THE CAST ON THE GLAMOUR OF AIR TRAVEL:
Michelle Gomez: I don’t think the play would work if it was set now as opposed to in the sixties because it’s set in a time when there was so much glamour associated with air travel, and the air hostesses were practically Playboy bunnies – which they’re not now.

Daisy Beaumont: My mother was actually an air hostess, I have a photo in my dressing room. They did have to be a lot more glamorous I think then, and they were weighed every month and weren’t allowed to go over eight and a half stone.

- by Caroline Ansdell

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