…ouch. We’ve been laughing at policemen since time immemorial, from Mr Plod, to Mr Goon and Inspector Japp. Alan Paris chats with Veronica Stivala about his role as one of the two dimwitted bobbies who make The Lying Kind so ridiculous and surprising.
Alan Paris is one of Malta’s most versatile actors. He has been treading the boards for over 25 years and has played a wide range of parts in various productions, from Shakespeare, to musicals, panto, straight plays, and comedies. It is not easy to do comedy well, and timing, as well as a good script to work with, are key. Thankfully, these two vital ingredients have been thrown into the mix, with a sharp script by Anthony Neilson (yes, the same of the controversially renowned play Stitching) and Alan and another well-known comic actor Edward Mercieca playing the parts of two daft cops Gobbel and Blunt.
“Neilson is good,” states Alan. And the play is “fast, ridiculous, surprising, full of twists (many of them physical) and definitely not corny. It keeps you wondering ‘how could the situation get any worse?’ and then an ‘unthinkable’ happens!”
In a nutshell, the not-so-bright policemen try to skirt breaking the terrible tragic news to an older couple that their daughter has died in a car accident on Christmas Eve. As their first lie is quickly caught out, the plot develops, or degenerates, into a hilarious series of disasters as the cops find themselves spinning one tall story after another.
In farce, if we don’t enjoy it, then the audience definitely won’t
Gobbel is your typical ‘dumb’ Bobby, notes Alan. He can never quite grasp what’s going on, and just follows his partner Blunt (Mercieca). Explaining further, Alan points out how Gobbel is “a very simple sort of guy who doesn’t deal with tricky situations very well. And the spiral that he gets himself into in this farce really puts him to the test. But throughout all this he remains hopeful and positive that things are going to turn out fine, and he keeps hoping that this has all been a big mistake”. Indeed, it is the fact that he’s so genuinely simple and positive that attracts Alan to the role.
We talk about the difficult skills of comedic timing. The trick? “Rehearsing over and over, adding the comedy bit by bit, repeating, sweating and bursting into uncontrollable laughter. Constantly,” says Alan, admitting how every time he rehearses for farce, he forgets how taxing and intense it is. And this one is no different: “It just gets more and more intense as the situation spirals out of control. But we’re laughing our way through it. So we hope that the audience will too.”
It is interesting how people seem to like to laugh at policemen and how they are so often presented as fools in fiction. We had Mr Plod in Noddy, Mr Goon in Enid Blyton’s Five Find-Outers, Inspector Japp in the Poirot series, and so on. “It’s a laugh to poke fun at people in authority isn’t it?” says Alan. It’s a stereotype that has been around forever, one we all know, so once the curtain goes up and Mercieca walks on stage with Alan in tow right behind him, the audience can tune in straight away. They can already see where this is going, and they’re right because Gobbel and Blunt fit right in.
Neilson himself gives you quite a lot to work with when it comes to character, comments Alan. A lot of it is there on the page, he says, adding that the fact that Gobbel and Blunt are your typical dumb British Bobbies also gives you a stereotype to work with. “But,” he goes on “having been brought up on [John] Cleese, [Michael] Crawford, Morecambe and Wise, et al is a lot of help. The whole play feels like it’s been written for Eric and Ernie!”
And what’s it like to work with Mercieca? When I compare Gobbel and Blunt to a Laurel and Hardy type of odd couple, Alan cannot but agree more and reveals how he and Mercieca, directed by Chris Gatt generally turn parts into a Laurel and Hardy sketch. “Ed and I play off each other very well. Throughout rehearsals we automatically do things together. There’s great chemistry there. And I have to say that I missed it.” The three have worked together before on Stones in his Pockets, Chicago, and Allo Allo and Alan has always found it “great to work with these two. In fact,” he confides, “when the producer called to ask if [he] was interested, Edward and Chris were the first two names that he mentioned and [Alan] didn’t need to know more.” He accepted on the spot, without even reading the script. “It’s great to back on stage with the old man!” he cheers.
Speaking about the production, Alan notes how “we’ve all really pulled together and are having a great time in rehearsals, notwithstanding the sweat and bruises.” He reveals, how, then again, this is a Chris Gatt/Unifaun production and that he usually loses weight when he work with this director as he is constantly adding physicality to each scene. “Adrian (Buckle, Unifaun producer) always gets a great team of people together. In farce, if we don’t enjoy it, then the audience definitely won’t! It’s been a blast so far, so I’m hoping that the audience is in for one hell of a ride!”
The Lying Kind plays at Sir Temi Zammit Hall, Tal-Qroqq, on October 21, 22 and 23.
www.unifauntheatre.com