Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 6

6 THURSDAY 23 APRIL 1998 EVENING STANDARD mb by Nicholas de Jongh Stoppard and Shaffer Double-bill The Comedy Farcical fun in the dark and a lethal spoof FOR TOE 0 ODD Comedy trios DouMe-bfll tan Sara Crowe Anna Chancellor and Nicliola McAufiffe last night 64Mb SDRAM (New fast 100MHz) 512k Cache 86Gb UDMA HDD 32 Panasonic CD-ROM Intel 440BX Chipset with 100MHz Bus 17" Digital Monitor 50W Speakers 4Mb 3D AGP ATI Rage Pro Graphics 56Kbps Modem with speakerphone MS Windows 95 plus Lotus SmartSuite Incoming 3D Compton's Encyclopedia and more FREE 12 MONTHS ON-SITE SERVICE MODEL 8590 Mthe wail is over Because the new generation of Advent PCs have Just arrived Featuring a choice of Intel's latest 350MHz or 400MHz Pentium" II processors to bring you more computer power than ever before Both models combine this exceptional speed and power with massive memory and hard disk capacity together with a complete range of multimedia features including superfast 56k modem 32 speed CD-ROM drive and 17" monitor Compare the prices spec for spec with other machines and you'll find they offer exceptional value You can order Advent direct or visit any PC World store FUTURE PROOF pMONTTHS £M90s INC VAT £176133 SAFE Picture: DAVE BENETT THIS farcical doable-bill from the 1960s shows what absurd flm Tom Stoppard and Peter Shaffer created when they let their fantasies mn wild though with sex roles Neither play is first-rate force and the Stoppard although as Inventive and ingenious as expect comes across as too flimsily whimsical But Shaffer's Black Comedy springs a volley of dateless jokes about furtive behaviour In the dark when bottoms are touched and reputations lost The darkness in Blade Comedy Is of the mos unusual kind The stage blazes with light when the actors playing upon it are supposed to be in the dark All illumination Is switched off when the performers are supposed to be in the light The first minutes are played In the pitch-black obscurity of the Kensington studio of the two-timing unscrupulous sculptor Brindsley Miller Then a ftise goes and the stage is flooded with to reveal the sculptor teetering on the verge of several disasters and very ripe force These disasters which invite malicious pleasure and the caddish come-uppance require physical ingenuity How in the dark of a fiised apartment do you dear your studio of the precious bric-a-brac you have borrowed from Harold your camp antiques dealer neighbour when he unexpectedly arrives home? Worse how do yon deal with your braying debutante girlfriend (Anna Chancellor) and her silent predecessor Sara vindictive Clea who has reappeared hot for revenge in bed or out of it Not easily of course And David Brindsley even though he does not ascend the proper spiral of fordcal panic reeks of sweaty flustered agitation He creeps about the room hands imitating the action of a tentative crab to -4 350MHz Intel Pentium ll Processor 64Mb SDRAM (New fast 100MHz) 512k Cache 86Gb UDMA HDD 32xPanasonic'CD-ROM Intel 440BX Chipset with 100MHz Bus 17N Digital Monitor 50W Speakers 4Mb 3D AGP ATI Rage Pro Graphics 56Kbps Modem with speakerphone MS Windows 95 plus Lotus SmartSuite Incoming 3D Compton's Encyclopedia and more FREE 12 MONTHS ON-SITE SERVICE MODEL 8570 £1399" f1643 If 10 ORDER DIRECT CALL FREEPHONE 0500 504030 retrieve fomiture But of course people Harold inducted happen to be sitting on it The athletic Tennant caught up in telephone wires furtively dashing to seize a chair when momentarily vacated raises most of the laughter Greg Doran's leisurely direction is not how ever particularly well-tuned to the hot-bloode music of force nor is all the acting Nichola McAuliffe's twittering spinster who discovers i passion for alcohol in the dark is a real fordca creation but Desmond Barrit's flouncin Harold could do with infusions of predatory ga ness Mr Barrit is for more comfortable as Bin boot the lecherous theatre critic in The Real Inspector Hound Wearing a look of airy self-importance to coi ceal the vacancy of his mind a shrewd tone 1 this Birdboot like his colleague Moon find himself swept into the play they are watching am accepted as one of the characters The play question is a lethal spoof of the dry-rot melodramatic rotten (rid Mousetrap But why parody the insignificant ridiculous? You are soon caught In the vice of aimless repetition I loved though portrayal of the dim-witted egotistical Birdboot and Moon the se ond-string critic who finds the corpse of superior on stage a nice touch that We theatre reviewers deserve to be stripped of our small pre-tensions and Sir Tom does a nice line in stripping Ratings: adequate good very good outstanding Xpoor Mora reviews: Page 44 jSSriN EAR EST? 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