Fuddy Meers

Synopsis

Claire awakens one morning as she always does - with no memory of the previous events of her life. Her husband hands her a scrapbook filled with all sorts of essential information, then disappears into the shower. A limping, lisping, half-deaf man pops out from under her bed and claims to be her brother, there to save her. Claire's information book is quickly discarded and she is hustled off to the country home of her mother, a recent stroke victim whose speech has been reduced to gibberish. The journey gets even more complicated when a dimwitted thug with a foul-mouthed hand puppet appears at a window, and her driven husband and perpetually-stoned son show up in the company of a claustrophobic lady cop whom they have kidnapped. Every twist and turn in this fun house plot brings Claire closer to a revelation of her past life and everything she thought she had forgotten. NOTE: This play contains adult language.

Our Review:

26 May 2004

Scamp Film and Theatre Ltd, the new production company co-founded by Sam Mendes, his former Donmar Warehouse executive producer Caro Newling and Pippa Harris, gets off to an inauspicious, spluttering start with the British premiere of a seriously misfiring off-Broadway comedy Fuddy Meers.

The only good news is that things can only get better after this, though the extremely high calibre of the artists that the company has managed to attract should also be noted, as should the fact that their make-up, too, immediately throws down the gauntlet of the exchange of talent the company hopes to foster between their twin bases in London and New York. Four of the seven actors have been specially imported from the US, joined by three highly accomplished British actors.

Sadly, they've been marooned in a stubbornly feeble, unfunny vehicle that Mendes has, perhaps wisely, declined to direct himself but entrusted instead to Angus Jackson. If anythi...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (62.254.0.34) - 10 June 2004:

I've seen the play at the Birmingham Rep. Fell in love with Katie though:-) After the play, the actors had a chat with the audience for 20 minutes. Great....

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