Michael Frayn’s Barney and Bee was originally called The Chinaman and was the second half of an evening of one-act plays. As resurrected by Renaiss
ance Theaterworks, it’s a wisenheimer wink-wink at the audience, a smart farce that owes a lot to the dumb British comedies of the Ray Cooney variety. Written in 1970, it also drips with the androgeny and hyper-horniness of the British 1960s. Austin Powers where are you?
Frayn has said that the play (originally written for Lynn Redgrave) was funnier from the wings than it was from the audience. In fact, it was watching Barney and Bee from the wings that gave him the idea for Noises Off, his celebrated farce in which we see a door-slamming comedy from backstage.
There’s plenty of door-slamming here, as the story is about a dinner party for seven people, but uses only two actors (two of the characters are never seen). After one of the most inventive curtain speeches I’ve ever heard, we first meet Jo and Stephen, nervously awaiting their guests. When they discover they’ve mistakenly invited both sides of a recently split couple, Frayn sweeps into action, contriving ways to keep all his characters in play, just as Jo and Stephen try to keep their guests separate.
Director Tami Workentin keeps things very broad, as they should be. And she has two talented comedians at her disposal. Norman Moses has the most fun with the paunched and drunk Barney, whose despairing loneliness gives the otherwise fluffy concept a dark undertone. And Laura Gray handles three different characters with a sure sense of comedy.
There are some great sight gags, mostly playing on the tricks Frayn uses to make the quick changes seem even quicker. Costume Designer Rachel Laritz deserves a tip of the hat for creating clothes that transform the actors’ spirits and bodies (some well-placed padding goes a long way) in a matter of quick-change seconds. Watching those machinations from the wings might indeed be a lot of fun, but the view from the audience wasn’t so bad either—a great escape into the inventive complexity of a great comic mind.
Review- Barney and Bee
Michael Frayn’s Barney and Bee was originally called The Chinaman and was the second half of an evening of one-act plays. As resurrected by Renaissance Theaterworks, it’s a wisenheimer wink-wink at the audience, a smart farce that owes a lot to the dumb British comedies of the Ray Cooney variety. Written in 1970, it also drips with the androgeny and hyper-horniness of the British 1960s. Austin Powers where are you? Frayn has said that the play (originally written for Lynn Redgrave) was funnier from the wings than it was from the audience. In fact, it was watching Barney and Bee…
