We had high hopes for Jack Absolute Flies Again, the big new comedy that’s opened at the National Theatre this summer. Written by Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors) and Oliver Chris (Twelfth Night), it’s a modern take on Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 18th-century farce The Rivals.
The play stars the brilliant Caroline Quentin as the iconic Mrs Malaprop, alongside Laurie Davidson, Natalie Simpson and Kelvin Fletcher in the other lead roles.
The original story has been updated and now unfolds during World War II. Everything takes place in and around Mrs Malaprop’s countryside pile – or piles, as she accidentally refers to it – and true to the original, we see various stories of love and mistaken identity unfold.
Cast members regularly break the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience and highlighting moments in the script that were in the original plot and new segments which have been written in.