Habeas Corpus by Alan Bennett – Menier Chocolate Factory  

A surreal play, dating from 1974, Habeas Corpus is farce without the clutter. Director Patrick Marber and his team know how to make vintage Bennett sing. The piece makes no attempt at realism. The set consists of a coffin, identities are continually mistaken, characters burst into song and often deliver soliloquies in rhyming couplets. Twice we get manic tango to the Dies Irae from Verdi’s Requiem. There’s a running gag about size (Dan Starkey as Sir Percy Shorter and that’s what he is) borrowed from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a great deal of misunderstanding about a pair of false breasts. 

We’re in the home of an unlikely doctor in Hove where almost everyone is randily yearning for sex with someone inappropriate. There’s something appealingly innocent about this at a time when me too, political correctness and a woke world lie decades into the future. 

At the production’s heart is outstanding performance from Jasper Britton as Dr Arthur Wicksteed. He undermines his character’s non-existent professionalism with a mere lift of an eyebrow and entertains with fake gravitas. Catherine Russell is splendid as his sadly ridiculous wife longing to be loved and fulfilled by almost anyone. Ria Jones as Mrs Swabb, the cleaning lady, does a lovely job as the quasi narrator. Very Welsh and making outrageous but perceptive comments, she really makes the role her own. And since Bennett played this role himself in the original production it’s a pretty hard act to follow.

The play includes some memorable lines such as “Sometimes I think Freud died in vain” and “In Memphis, Tennessee, fourteen babies have been born since this play began” – all delivered with dead-pan wit and panache. 

www.menierchocolatefactory.com to 27 February

Review by Susan Elkin

Photo: Catherine Russell (Muriel Wicksteed), Thomas Josling (Dennis Wicksteed), Kirsty Besterman (Constance Wicksteed), Ria Jones (Mrs Swabb) – by Manuel Harlan