CityLife

DO you think perfectly sane people would spend good money to enter the world of the characters from Fawlty Towers - snobbish, manic Basil, his harridan wife Sybil and their hopeless language-challenged waiter Manuel – for an evening?<br /> <br /> That you could enjoy a so-so meal when at any moment you might find a stray intimate item in the soup, you might get introduced to the waiter’s hamster/rat or that the lady of the house might shove a fish up her husband’s bum in anger? You bet.<br /> <br /> This two-hour interactive performance from Australia has had a waiting list for tickets virtually since it was annnounced, compelling Interactive Theatre Australia to add several shows to their sold-out run at The Lowry.<br /> <br /> Starting as the audience wait in the bar to be seated, the show is set in the restaurant of the Fawlty Towers hotel – otherwise known as the Lowry’s usually-excellent restaurant - and features the characters of Sybil (Alison Pollard-Mansergh), Basil (Blair Martin) and Manuel (Tony Nixon) in a “13th episode” of the TV show.<br /> <br /> The audience are the diners, served by the Faulty Towers cast (plus some understandably nervous-looking members of The Lowry restaurant’s own staff) and the result is organised chaos.<br /> <br /> Hapless<br /> <br /> Plates smash, the hapless Manuel repeatedly gets chased around the place and bashed over the head, and the soul-freezing cry “Basil!” rings out at regular intervals.<br /> <br /> A worldwide success since its opening in Brisbane in 1997, this is very much an interactive experience with an evolving script that doesn’t simply recreate the television show.<br /> <br /> Instead some of the ideas from the the original TV series are included – including Manuel’s rat and Basil’s betting slip debacle, to say nothing of the famous goose-step! - but ingeniously incorporated into the free-flow of the event.<br /> <br /> Although the company initially had some difficulty, because of the shape of the space, making sure that everyone could see and hear everything they were supposed to, this is, for the most part, great fun and, if you can get a ticket, recommended for persons not of a nervous disposition!<br /> <br /> Faulty Towers... The Dining Experience is at The Lowry until Wednesday, January 21. Call 0870 787 5780 to check for returns.<br />