Fuddy Meers

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::L0560104928}.

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 anything, it simply amplifies the multiple
disappointments to see so many good actors wrestling valiantly with the
preposterously overblown characterisations and situations they’ve been
thrown into. David Lindsay-Abaire has written more of a cartoon farce than
a fully-realised play, constantly tipping its hat (and winking an eye) to
the audience about how zany it all is, but succeeding only in being almost
constantly wearying.

In a twisted version of Groundhog Day-like logic, the lead character
Claire (Katie Finneran) has been doomed, for the past two years, to begin
each day with a clean memory slate. She’s suffering from what’s referred to
as ‘psychogenic amnesia’, and so, after she wakes up every day, she has to
re-learn who she is and who those around her are, too. We soon discover why
she might prefer to forget.

As Lindsay-Abaire re-introduces Claire (and us)
to her husband Richard (Nicholas Le Prevost) and drug-taking dyslexic son
Kenny (John Gallagher Jr), then stages a ‘kidnap’ that has a man, referred
to in the programme simply as ‘Limping Man’ (Tim Hopper), spirit her away
with his fellow ex-con friend Millet (and puppet Mr Binky, both of them
played by Matthew Lillard) to meet her stroke-victim mother Gertie (Julia
McKenzie), I soon wished we’d been left in the dark, too.

There’s nothing funny or original in any of these encounters, let alone with
a policewoman (Charlotte Randle) who pulls Richard and Kenny aside when
they’re trying to find the missing Claire. In fact there’s something
sad in encountering quite so many variously damaged people on one stage, but,
with the exception of McKenzie’s language-scrambling mother, who
superbly registers her character’s frustration at not being able to
communicate effectively, there’s nothing very truthful here either.

I’m afraid that the inevitable, but perhaps strangely appropriate, verdict
on this play about amnesia is that I’d rather forget it.

– Mark Shenton

NOTE: The following FIVE-STAR review dates from April 2004 and this prouduction’s initial dates at Birmingham Rep.

Short-term memory loss has become something of a popular topic in
recent
years, from 2000 film Memento to Adam Sandler’s latest hit
50
First Dates, but then they do say there are actually only seven
original
stories in the world.

It was in 1999 however, that David Lindsay-Abaire‘s brutally funny
play
Fuddy Meers opened in Manhattan – and yes, the movie is
currently in
development.

Now the piece has its European premiere in Birmingham, under the
direction
of Angus Jackson before a transfer to the West End’s Arts Theatre,
and if
you only make one trip to London this year – make sure this play is
on
the itinerary.

Claire wakes each morning to a series of revelations; she has no idea
that
she dislikes juice, her husband doesn’t drink coffee, or that she loses her
memory every night. She suffers from psychogenic amnesia, and although
she
is capable of retaining vast amounts of information during the day, she
forgets everything when she sleeps.

When a limping, lisping, half-blind, half-deaf, facially-disfigured
ex-convict appears from under her bed, introduces himself as her
brother and
says the man she thinks is her husband wants to kill her, Claire’s day
of
unearthing her story begins – as does a two-hour roller coaster of
hilarious
antics and heartbreaking poignancy in a world where nothing is what it
appears and no one is who they seem.

Claire sets off in search of her life, meeting a series of eccentric
characters – including a claustrophobic policewoman, another ex-con who
can
only express himself through his alter-ego (a sock puppet), and her own
mother, whose speech is severely impaired through a stroke. All with
husband
Richard (Nicholas Le Prevost) and angst-ridden teenage son Kenny
(John
Gallagher Jnr) in frantic and dope-fuelled pursuit.

Tony Award winner Katie Finneran brings a convincing bewilderment and
real
sense of discovery to Claire, and as the horror of the trauma which
caused
her amnesia is revealed, she takes every member of the audience with
her.

But this is an ensemble piece with brilliant performances all round:
Julia
MacKenzie‘s Gertie, frustrated at her loss of normal speech and trying
desperately to communicate her mixed-up words to her daughter; Matthew
Lillard‘s achingly vulnerable Millet, conversing with and clinging
onto his
puppet as he learns the truth behind his own tragedy; Gallagher
pleading
with his newly-discovered mother in the final moments of the play to
stay
awake just a few minutes more. Hollywood’s Scooby Doo star
Lillard in
particular lights up the stage with magnetic presence and an
illuminating
performance.

Captivating and utterly compelling theatre. And definitely not
forgotten
overnight.

– Elizabeth Ferrie