Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

Adapted for the stage by Henry Filloux-Bennett

With Michael Lindall, Sylvester McCoy, Jonathan Hansler, Fay Downie, Emily Murphy, Morgan Thomas and Owen Roberts

Old Red Lion Theatre, 30 Nov 2010 – 29 Jan 2011

Decline and Fall is the tale of Paul Pennyfeather (Michael Lindall) who is unfairly sent down from Oxford having been found naked in the quad by one of the masters. It is, of course, not his fault; he was simply returning to his rooms when he was assaulted by members of the ‘Bollinger Club’.

An entirely likeable, innocent but hapless individual, Paul takes a job at a terrible public school in Wales, where incompetent teachers and idiotic staff bemuse and dominate as farcical events unfold around him. At sports day he falls in love with the mother of one of his pupils, and on being asked to tutor the child during the summer holidays, becomes engaged to her. She is Mrs Beste-Chetwynde (Fay Downie), a society beauty who unbenownst to him runs a string of brothels in the new world. Arrested and imprisoned for colluding in this business (after she sets him up), he is thrown into jail and hits rock bottom when she promptly jilts him for a member of parliament. However, feeling contrite, Mrs Beste-Chetwynde engineers his escape using her new-found influence, and he is spat back out into the world, entirely confused by the whole series of events.

The grand irony is that Paul Pennyfeather is the most well intentioned and moral character of the whole piece, yet treated as the worst throughout, blown this way and that on the whim of fate, quite out of control of his own destiny.

Unfortunately this irony isn’t enough to sustain two hours of drama. This faithful adaptation left me empty, but the fault is Waugh’s and not the production’s which has some remarkable highlights and enjoyable passages. It is very neatly directed by Tom King. It is to him that most credit must go because the play is very well choriographed, enjoyably and dynamically constructed with great use of props and set and smooth ensemble acting dealt with neatly and easily. Each character is graced with great mannerisms and affectations which quickly delineate and establish them. Without this bold guidance really taking the play by the horns it could have been a truly dreadful few hours.

The sparkling opening of the play is a real testament to Tom King’s talent, which I hope to see visited on much better material. Sylvester McCoy plays the Oxford Don to great comic effect, and as we race through to the beginning of Paul’s teaching career each new character is introduced strongly and amusingly. We in the audience have to stand up and sit down as we are lectured to as pupils by the pompous headmaster, and it feels as though we’re in for a really entertaining show. However, as the leaden plot takes hold and the adaptation’s flabby middle is exposed all this excitement is lost, and with it I lost sight of any point in staging the play at all. A rendering of Waugh’s book it is, interesting it is not. After the interval Tom managed to flog the play back up to a canter for the final act, sufficient to give a genuine round of applause, but not to take a single thing away from.

The acting is on the whole good quality. Sylvester McCoy is very enjoyable as Captain Grimes, altough pushing far into the realm of the ridiculous. Jonathan Hanser is solid as Dr Fagan and Michael Lindall quite good enough to play the confused Paul Pennyfeather. At points the acting is laboured in an attempt to extract comedy from the script when really none is there, and they too often have recourse to lame caricature to try and raise a laugh. As the lack of depth in the satire was exposed I felt sorry for the actors who did their best trying to make it work, and to their credit did not die on their feet.

Henry Filloux-Bennett’s adaptation was not terrible. He managed to harness plenty of the satire of the novel and making largely solid choices about what to cut and what to retain. It was let down by not being ruthless enough; at 2 hours the play was definitely half an hour too long. The extra material, such as Philbrick’s (Owen Roberts) stories, really wasn’t good enough to drag out. Fundamentally, I feel the choice of novel was unfortunate; however good your director and cast they can’t play on nothing forever, and the conceit of Paul’s fate simply doesn’t carry with it enough comic content to make anything of. Of all of Waugh’s early novels, this is probably the weakest.

Waugh’s early satires all feel as though they were written too quickly. Amusing and effective at sending up his contemporaries, there is no soul to them at all. His authorial presence is so dominant it can easily feel heavy handed as we’re manipulated through the plot. As our main character’s agency is taken from him, so is my interest in his fate. It is frustrating to watch when we know how brilliant he could be, as in Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honour trilogy.

This adaptation of Decline and Fall, in fact this whole genre of theatre feels like T.V for the upper classes. It is not particularly well observed satire and there’s no meaningful or incisive drama. It really isn’t interesting, despite in part being clever. The fact that I came out actually having enjoyed parts of it is testament to a good cast and great director.

Porthole view: 5.5/10