CityLife

The Sunshine Boys

The Sunshine Boys

The Sunshine Boys
Oldham Coliseum 
October 9, 2010

Comedy double acts depend on stage for an apparently close and jolly relationship – but off stage?

It is nearly 40 years since Neil Simon’s essentially comic, but bittersweet and incisive, take on this intriguing conundrum first hit Broadway and then became the hit movie starring Walter Matthau and George Burns.

Simon gives us Lewis and Clark, Al and Willie, two old stagers who enjoyed 43 years’ success in the early days of American vaudeville – until age caught up with them. 

Al retires gracefully, but Willie can’t let go. He spends his time in a seedy New York hotel room in his pyjamas, waiting for his agent/nephew Ben to turn up weekly with a copy of Variety – and a job that never materialises.

After a gap of ten years, Al comes to visit – and their true relationship flares up. They can’t stand one another, but decide for old times’ sake to reprise their famous 'doctor' sketch on the spot. They can’t even agree on how to place the chairs and tables (a very funny, well-timed sequence).

Reluctantly, they agree to do the sketch one last time for a TV special celebrating the history of comedy – but they can’t even finish the dress rehearsal for arguing. Ironically, they seem destined to finish up in the same retirement home for old actors.

No-one writes comedy like Neil Simon, with heartbreak just below the surface. 

This well-observed production by Joyce Branagh brings together Robert Pickavance as Willie and David Fielder as Al. They work splendidly together, with real energy and crisp comic timing, although Pickavance reaches the apoplectic heights of a manic John Cleese in the “doctor” sketch.

They are well supported by Dominic Gately, as the kindly put-upon Ben, Marianne Benedict as the curvaceous nurse, worthy of the Carry On films or the Benny Hill Show, and Maxine Burth as Willie’s proper nurse.

This is an enjoyable night out. But I do wish that the Coliseum, a friendly theatre, would abandon the old rep business of the lead actor stopping the applause to promote up-coming shows and invite the audience to join the actors in the bar. It just breaks the spell of the production for me.

Until 23 October, 2010. Tkts £11.50 - £18.50, concs available. 0161 624 2829 or www.coliseum.org.uk.