Jeeves and Wooster: Stiff Upper Lip – Actors’ Church

Is it possible to take a P G Wodehouse novel featuring his iconic characters and bring it to the stage with the silliness and farce turned up to eleven?  Apparently, it is, if Oliver Stockley’s adaptation of “Jeeves and Wooster in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves” is anything to go by. 

Stockley also directs the troupe of four performers in a show so fast-paced and full of laughs that it’s a sheer delight to watch.  The four players, Shaun Mendum (Wooster), Scott Slocombe (Jeeves/Sir Watkyn Bassett), Chioma Uma (Emerald/Rev Pinker), and Lowenna Morgelyn (Gussie Fink-Nottle/Madeline Bassett/Aunt Dahlia) romp through the story, shifting effortlessly between personas, playing instruments, and singing, all with perfect comic timing. The plot is a riot of misplaced relationships, a possibly cursed vase, a play-within-a-play, a Tyrolean hat, and it’s all linked with delightful wordplay and physical comedy. The main driving force of the plot is Wooster’s dislike of the Bassett family and desire never to visit their estate at Totleigh Towers, not least because Madeline Bassett is obsessed with him and wants to marry him, despite her being engaged to Gussie. So of course, he reluctantly goes there to try to shore up Madeline and Gussie’s relationship. It’s exactly the sort of convoluted scenario with shifting relationships that is expected from a Wodehouse story, the misunderstandings eventually being resolved through Jeeves’ perfectly timed valeting. And this version has music and song which adds another layer. 

The set, in such a small space as the stage in the garden of the Actors’ Church, is minimal, but great use is made of a few boxes, a table and the vase that provokes some poor decisions by Wooster. The costumes, often worn in layers for ease of change of character, or even just a hat in the case of Aunt Dahlia, are well-chosen. Jeeves is smartly turned out in his valet’s morning suit, while Wooster looks dishevelled in a blue checkered suit. The singing might not be the players’ strongest trait, but this suits the characters who are presenting their version of a musical Hamlet (but without the “everybody dies” ending) at the Totleigh Towers summer fete. As with all Wodehouse, this is an England that never existed, requiring a substantial suspension of disbelief to enter into the world of Wodehouse and the heightened reality of this level of silly.

This is a fun show, in delightful surroundings, performed by four supremely talented actor-musicians in a clever and witty adaptation that leaves the audience smiling.

Jeeves and Wooster in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is playing in the garden at the Actors’ Church, Covent Garden until 4th September.  Tickets are available from: https://actorschurch.org/whatson/jeeves-and-wooster/

Reviewer: Carole Gordon

Reviewed: 18th August 2026

North West End UK Rating: