Jack Absolute Flies Again

by Richard Bean, Oliver Chris

What will happen in England after we have won this war?
Bunting! Bunting everywhere!
After the bunting has been taken down.
They will never take down our bunting!

July 1940. After an aerial dog fight, Pilot Officer Jack Absolute flies home to win the heart of his old flame, Lydia Languish.

Back on British soil, Jack's advances soon turn to anarchy when the young heiress demands to be loved on her own, very particular, terms.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic comedy of manners, The Rivals , is given an uproarious Battle of Britain update by Richard Bean and Oliver Chris.

In 2011, Richard Bean became the first playwright to win the Evening Standard Award for Best Play for two plays, The Heretic and One Man, Two Guvnors . This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the National Theatre, London, in July 2022.

Genres: Plays, Theatre

144 pages, Paperback

Published October 20, 2022

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bean had a huge hit on both sides of the ocean with his One Man, Two Guvnors, a reimagining/updating of Goldoni's commedia A Servant to Two Masters - which also, unfortunately, catapulted James Corden to stardom. He's not quite so successful with this revision of Sheridan's late Restoration comedy, The Rivals, reset during the Battle of Britain, circa 1940.

As the tepid reviews below indicate, it tries too hard for the humor, and makes a disastrous turn towards the melodramatic in the final moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKrKf...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_J0L...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARKcr...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4mDX...

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/w...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...
https://variety.com/2022/legit/review...

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sheridan reworked. Decent farce but it’s too insistent and the ending is rather incongruous.

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last night we watched this collage to Sheridan's The Rivals, which really is very bemusing! When it was performed at the National Theatre, I'm sure the audience was literally lolling in the isles. However, checking here on Goodreads I'm reappointed to find its average grating is a miserable 3.55; it simply buggers the imagination to think that so few readers got the joke. But don't relieve them. If you fail to depreciate Richard Bean's little mantlepiece, then my name's not Mrs Malaprop.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely helps that I saw this play opening week, but it’s such an enjoyable play & is a wonderful adaptation to Sheridan’s the Rivals.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this play when I saw it at National Theatre and I enjoyed reading it just as much. Still don't really like the ending.