Pass The Butler I.i)rt uric Theatre THE TRANQUIL panelling of Sir Robert Charles' country seat reverberates to a family row: should the master's life support machine be switched off?
The. heir, William Rushton. wants his inheritance, the butler, John Fortune, wants to keep his job. However the merry flashing and burping of the coffin-shaped appliance is an early assurance that we are not in for a debate on euthanasia.
This feeling is reinforced when we learn that Sir Robert is still Minister For Defence and policemen and journalists disguise themselves as each other and get hiffed on the head.
Before long the nubile daughter exposes her bottom. the
gay'. punk, zen son turns homicidal, and mum reveals herself to be dad. Of course, the family is Catholic, the latest sine qua non of posh eccentricity.
You may have already guessed that plot is not this show's strong point, the ticket price being justified on how funny you find the epigrams, as relentless and remorseless as machine-gun bullets. which include such Wildisms as "You can't make an omelette without breaking wind".
This noisome entertainment has that peculiar claustrophobia of the public school end-of-term reviews.
"Willie" Rushton, however, shines as an actor of considerable discipline and as the .policeman, Peter Jones holds together the sprawl with good humour.
Murder in Mind Strand Theatre THE STRAND Theatre has been the home of one of the great commercial successes of the 1970s, 'No Sex Please We're British'. It has been followed by a thriller. Murder In Mind, by Terence Feely. I doubt that it will run for as many weeks as its predecessor did years. The Play might have benefited had it adopted the more uncomplicated approach of the farce it followed. I for one could not follow all the z-bends and twists.
Fails will know what to expect at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, ill 'An evening's intercourse with Dame Edna' but is it all getting too crude?, J.K.