The Oddest Couple
Theatre Royal Stratford East, London

Luke Robins-Grace

The Theatre Royal Stratford East bills itself as a showcase for black talent with a partiality for comedy sketches and improv, and The Oddest Couple fits comfortably in that mould.

As a bread and butter sending up of black stereotypes, it certainly hit the spot with the audience. But despite excellent performances from Eddie Nestor (Cyril James in Casualty) and Robbie Gee (Peckham Prince in Desmond's), it unfortunately failed to rise much above a collection of slightly dated gags and cliches.

The stale, oppressive marriage of Iggy and Velma Norant forms the backbone of the story, with Velma becoming a sister who tries to turn it around. Living next door are the council estate classics, the Ragga Girls, and running the local pirate radio station are the African (but American wannabe) Butu Boys. Old-time barbershop type residents Cornelious and Alphonse bring up the comedy rear with constant one-upmanship of the 'When I met the Rev Dr Martin Luther King' variety.

A strong mix of juxtaposing characters obviously form the building blocks of The Oddest Couple, but writer Geoff Aymer's attempt to tell a sensitive tale of domestic drudgery in one scene, and then get us to laugh at pantomime fake rude-boyz in the next, does not quite work. The audience was caught off-guard several times, guffawing at the cute old chauvinist Iggy only to be rushed into a belated boo-hiss when he whipped out his belt.

Aymer, a writer and performer for over ten years, said a previous incarnation of the show, The Nutty Professionals, was basically a collection of sketches around which he was asked to write a story. He claimed this more recent version is more of a coherent play rather than a series of comedy moments with a story line tagged on the end, but it seems the same flaws remain.

So if the narrative is not up to scratch, what about the funny bits? Both Nestor and Gee performed excellently throughout and between them play each character, switching seamlessly from one to the other.

The Butu-Boys showed the most promise - Africans trying to be American Westcoasters is perhaps one of the newest cultural phenomenon of all the blaxploitation archetypes, although this was a bit spoilt by some over-the-top physical bufoonery reminiscent of the Chuckle Brothers. The Ragga girls were good value too, but their act was weakened by a few really obvious gags, one of which was about that well-known racist organisation. 'What da BNP?' asks one, 'Nah man, da Police, innit?'

Given the actors' talent and writer's experience The Oddest Couple punches below the weight of those behind it, mainly because the format limited the play to something more akin to an end of year review. Even though Gee did it well, throughout the entire performance there was something irksome about a six-foot black man playing a meek middle aged woman, and for no obvious reason other than to show it could be done. Turning a series of sketches into a full play has not done either element the justice that the writer and actors appear able to give.

Till 28 February 2004