What happens behind the scenes – or in this case the swagged crimson curtains of classic vaudeville – provokes as much laughter as the onstage stage material itself in Neil Simon’s 1972 gem. With echoes of the real life break-ups and bitterness so often associated with real life successful comedy duos, the The Sunshine Boys gives us a study of a legendary pair in their fading years.

The desperate attempts at self justification from each of them become excruciatingly funny as they battle any move to resolve the acrimony caused by the sudden ‘retirement’ of one partner eleven years before, as preparations for a television retrospective on American comedy become their last chance to strut their stuff. Director Ross Gumbley is working with rich comic material here.

 

The resulting tension is shrewdly observed by writer and director, with nagging behaviours and contrariness charging many a scene with hilarious irony for us, the onlookers. Less appealing is the coverage of transitions, where we are offered another couple of clowns in front of the velvet curtain sealing off the real world. The dislocation is a minor irritation but a real one.

The humour then relies heavily on the central characters, with special focus on Willie Clark, occupier of a starkly shabby hotel room and expert in the art of maintaining a defensive shell. Reduced to watching vapid television until his weekly copy of Variety is delivered by his agent nephew Ben, he presents a cantankerous and perverse denial of failing health and market value. When a real opportunity arises, to work again with Al Lewis, who ‘walked out him’, stress levels all round are heightened before some sort of rapprochement is achieved.

Willie is brought to life with perceptive insight by Michael Keir-Morrissey. Although his is an exaggerated character, we still have to care about him and the subtlety of vulnerability is neatly achieved without sentimentality. His off-sider, Geoffrey Heath, as Al, gives another staunch performance. He is more restrained than Willie, a tad more dignified, but just as obdurate and pernickety in holding his ground.

That minefield between them is frequently negotiated by the versatile Jonathan Martin as Ben Silverman, a role he plays with comically alternating exasperation and concern. A health crisis for Willie brings on ‘non-agitatable’ Nurse O’Neill, delivered with uncompromising clarity by Roslen Langton, while extra roles including the transition clowns are purposefully handled by Dan Bain and Edward Dever.

In design terms too, the play is well served. The set from Tony Geddes enhances the real-life/ fictional life split and Annie Graham’s restrained but identifiably seventies costumes locate the characters firmly in their New York world. Brendan Albrey had lighting and A.V. design in his brief, contributing effectively to both.

Tastes in comedy can be expected to change over the decades, but human nature does not and the play still scores the humour as well as the pathos of that recognition. The final delicious irony, as the nit-picky pair face their reality in the same Home for Ageing Actors, is that there, problems are likely to multiply. The result for onlookers will go on being very funny.
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