Both set and staged in the Coach and Horses pub on Greek Street, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell is pub theatre par excellence. The play opens with a bang and a crash as attendees are suddenly plunged into darkness and Jeffrey Bernard himself stumbles out into the light, or rather, into the bar itself, knocking over several items on his way to the wall mounted switch by which he will reignite the room’s several chandeliers. This is the first of several pub tricks within a pub trick that delights and disturbs audiences.
The environs are more than suitable, and service is good at the bar throughout the 20 minutes of liberal drink pouring that precedes each performance. Seated tickets take bar and benches while the rest of the crowd files into the available standing space, all of which is well utilized over the show’s hour runtime. Formal audience participation is minimal but the coziness and indeed the awkwardness of the setting demand a familiarity between performer and patron that consummate thespian Robert Bathurst handles with soft stamina and hard charm.
Mean spirited but not entirely uncharitable, the script is both undeniably funny and indisputably dated. Bathurst’s ranting is as compelling and captivating as this material gets but when occasional shrill interjections by mysterious female voices are piped in via incongruous cassette player his magic spell is broken, and twenty-first century conceptions of women as actual people begin to nag distractingly at the mind. As the play races towards its unfruitful finish, Bathurst is able to win over the audience again and again. Friends forgive and occasionally indulge. Premise and performer blend terrifically in this clever cocktail of a play, ultimately, well worth the indulgence.
Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell runs Sundays and Mondays from the 11th of February to the 26th with a special midnight lock in on Saturday the 17th. https://jeffreyplay.com/
Reviewer: Kira Daniels
Reviewed: 5th February 2024
North West End UK Rating: