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Topless #1
Up Pompeii
Based on the original characters devised by Talbot Rothwell and Sid Colin for the Frankie Howerd BBC comedy, this hilarious romp through ancient Pompeii brings back all the television favourites in this full-length play seen on a national tour in 2011 starring Damian Williams as Lurcio, Senator Ludicrus Sextus’s slave. As Lurcio attempts to deliver his prologue and begin proceedings, he’s quickly caught up in the myriad of sexual liaisons in all quarters of his master’s house. Why does Ludicrus not leave for the Senate meeting in Rome? Why does his wife return so quickly from the country? Who will take care of the escaped slave girl, Voluptua, and will Nausius’s love poetry improve? Whilst growing chaos ensues, an increasing rumbling is heard in the distance – what could that possibly be? A riot from start to finish.
- GenresPlays
113 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
3 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Miles Tredinnick
8 booksMiles Tredinnick's stage plays include Twist, It’s Now or Never!, Laugh? I Nearly Went to Miami!, and the four one-act Topless plays set on open-top sightseeing buses in London, Philadelphia, Sydney, and Las Vegas. For BBC1 TV, he created and wrote the comedy series Wyatt's Watchdogs and was a writer on the show Birds of a Feather. In addition he wrote stage and television material for Frankie Howerd including the Channel 4 TV special Superfrank and the stage comedy Up Pompeii. Fripp is his first novel. He is also the lead singer Riff Regan in the English punk band London. His debut solo album Milestones was released in 2015. More info at www.MilesTredinnick.com
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 24, 2021
‘Carry On’ humour and nostalgia.
I never saw the Frankie Howerd original series, sadly, but the style, the board and dirty humour, the theatre approach, it's both familiar and my sort of thing.
To listen to an homage, 50 years later, well, it felt like I could have been in the audience at the time. There may be references to texting and modern new-fangled technology, but I don't think the jokes have changed.
In fact, I'm pretty sure they were almost all recycled from their predecessors.
In Pompei, we are taken through a sex-crazed world of love affairs and subterfuge, of leering, lust and legs. By the Howerd-like narrator, Lurcio, who gets embroiled in his master's liaisons, and those of everyone else with too much time (and too many hormones) on their hands. Now is that their temperature rising, of that of the nearby volcano?
Loved listening to this, I felt nostalgic for a time I never lived through. I especially loved the moments of ad lib when actors forgot or missed lines and the cast has to compensate. But the whole thing is funny, from the Life of Brian-like names (Voluptua, Erotica) to the over-the-top lasciviousness and antiquated sexual attitudes.
Much fun. Not to be taken seriously. Or as historical fact.
With thanks to Nudge books for providing a sample Audible copy.
I never saw the Frankie Howerd original series, sadly, but the style, the board and dirty humour, the theatre approach, it's both familiar and my sort of thing.
To listen to an homage, 50 years later, well, it felt like I could have been in the audience at the time. There may be references to texting and modern new-fangled technology, but I don't think the jokes have changed.
In fact, I'm pretty sure they were almost all recycled from their predecessors.
In Pompei, we are taken through a sex-crazed world of love affairs and subterfuge, of leering, lust and legs. By the Howerd-like narrator, Lurcio, who gets embroiled in his master's liaisons, and those of everyone else with too much time (and too many hormones) on their hands. Now is that their temperature rising, of that of the nearby volcano?
Loved listening to this, I felt nostalgic for a time I never lived through. I especially loved the moments of ad lib when actors forgot or missed lines and the cast has to compensate. But the whole thing is funny, from the Life of Brian-like names (Voluptua, Erotica) to the over-the-top lasciviousness and antiquated sexual attitudes.
Much fun. Not to be taken seriously. Or as historical fact.
With thanks to Nudge books for providing a sample Audible copy.
May 31, 2015
The difference between innuendo and smut is a very fine line. The original TV series and film of Up Pompeii knew where that line was and managed to keep on the correct side of it. Most of the time this play doesn't.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews