Theatre
Tipping The Hat
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
four stars
Perhaps, out of consideration for Oran Mor’s stocks of fortified wine, there’s no invitation to ‘have some madeira, m’dear’ in this affectionate look back at vintage Flanders and Swann material. But in Tipping The Hat – written and directed by John Bett – we do take a trip down memory lane on The Slow Train, reflect that the rain it raineth more often than not in A Song of The Weather and finally join in the uproarious wallowing in mud, glorious mud, that is the gleeful chorus in The Hippopotamus Song. Not quite a feast – you’d probably have to catch the extended version of the show (at Haddo House on October 13th) for additional tasty morsels – but within the span of a lunchtime hour, Gordon Cree and John Jack perform seven or eight choice numbers and these do give a composite flavour of the humours and tunes that made Flanders and Swann such a success at home and abroad during the 1950s and early 60s.
Neither Cree nor Jack ever assumes the actual character of Swann or Flanders: their salute to the original talents bypasses imitation, edges the droll archness that twinkled in the fashion of yesteryear towards a more camp comedic style and ensures that we know when the banter is between Gordon and John, not Donald and Michael. They also weave in facts and anecdotes about the life and times behind the songs. Biographical details about composer Swann’s Russian roots and the polio that meant lyricist Flanders became a wheelchair user, are mixed in with the historical/political context to the achingly elegaic Slow Train that sighs over Beeching’s railway closures. Cree (also on piano) and Jack sing splendidly together – accommodating both the music-hall gusto and lush melodic flights that Flanders and Swann allied so brilliantly to their
sophisticated rhymes, sly puns and political savvy. Hats off, all round!
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