Home / Arts and Entertainment / Men Behaving Badly Stage Play Misses Mark
Men Behaving Badly Stage Play Misses Mark
3 Feb
Summary
- Stage adaptation struggles to balance impersonation and reinterpretation.
- Plot device requires Gary to marry before Dorothy gives birth.
- Play feels like a misconception with underdeveloped female characters.
The Barn Theatre in Cirencester presents a stage adaptation of Simon Nye's popular 90s sitcom, "Men Behaving Badly," set on millennium eve in 1999.
The production faces challenges common to television-to-stage transfers, particularly in its casting choices. While Matt Howdon and Tricia Adele-Turner closely impersonate their original characters, Ellie Nunn and Ross Carswell offer more distinct interpretations, creating an uneven ensemble.
Joseph O'Malley's direction navigates between re-enactment and independent performance, complicated by a video appearance from one of the original actors. The play attempts to expand on the sitcom's original plots, introducing two ticking clocks: Gary must marry a heavily pregnant Dorothy to inherit from an aunt, and Tony has 24 hours to convince Deb to marry him so he can move to Melbourne.
Despite an extended musical interval, the 100-minute runtime struggles to fully develop its themes. The narrative's focus on impregnation and the role of the female characters is criticized for feeling underdeveloped and lacking the feminist undertones of the original series, leading to a conclusion that the adaptation is a "misconception."
