Director: Daniel Clarkson
The public’s appetite for Morecambe and Wise continues undiminished, with at least two re-creations of the great double act touring at the moment. Unlike The Play What I Wrote, which spools around the story of a different pair of comedians and foregrounds the costume “drama” and the guest star, Eric & Ern is simply and purely a brilliant re-creation of much familiar material. No writer is credited for the show; presumably it’s mostly Eddie Braben and, quite possibly, Sid Green and Dick Hills and assorted gag writers.
Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens have been “doing” Morecambe and Wise in various forms for some 20 years, since a supposed one-off at Richmond Golf Club. With the slightly different title Eric and Little Ern they performed a play about the relationship and their website advertises cabaret performances of anything from 15 minutes upwards.
The result is that, as far as any two chaps can be, they are Eric and Ernie. The physical similarity is considerable, but more than that movement and manner have been honed to perfection over the years. Jonty Stephens is as gleefully manic, as mischievously confiding, as Eric himself and Ian Ashpitel’s smugly innocent Ernie massively enjoys his occasional triumphs over his partner. And both are terrific in the dance routines choreographed by Nicola Keen.
It is, however, a strange experience watching a show where the audience laughs before the punch line. Two classics, in particular (the police siren/ice cream gag and the piano notes “not necessarily in the right order”), are delivered almost in quotation marks to an audience delighted to meet an old friend. But, if this is just an exercise in nostalgia, its nostalgia extraordinarily well presented.
The front curtain (an essential Morecambe prop) is actually fairly far back, giving plenty of empty stage and two basic settings for sketches: the sofa and the bed. In the second half a piano replaces the bed and we all know what’s coming. The sketch works pretty well with Ernie taking the Andrew Preview role and the audience standing in for the orchestra, but it’s not quite the same – a reminder of how terrific Andre Previn was!
There is nothing too elaborate, but Eric and Ernie are given one guest/stooge to humiliate. A singer (not listed in the programme) performs Send in the Clowns extremely straight while two extremely naughty boys in contrasting clown get-up fool and frolic around her. As a reward she gets to sing an uninterrupted number in the second half before being bounced out of the curtain call.
Like the best of the old-style variety comedians Ashpitel and Stephens can sing a song, do a dance and time a gag – and they are almost uncannily convincing as Morecambe and Wise. If this is living in the past, it’s certainly a fun place to be.
Touring nationwide
