'Lady Windermere's Fan' at the Vaudeville Theatre

Continuing the Oscar Wilde season at the Vaudeville Theatre is 'Lady Windermere's Fan' and they've really pushed out the fan motif with this one, with fans around the proscenium arch, on the curtain, the window and the back of the stage and even the floorboards. Well done to the designer! Of course, you don't go to the theatre to check out the designers work (well, I don't) but it was a very nice, clean design that we saw when the curtain rose.

'Lady Windermere's Fan' is another one of Oscar's mistaken identity plays, a play of misunderstandings and untold truths and, as you'd expect, a satire on 'society'. We're in high society here and everyone in the play has a title of some sort, Lord this or Duchess that, other than the common (but quite nice) Australian with his kangaroos and odd accent but great wealth. And, of course, the servants (but they don't really count, do they?).

The play opens with Lady Windermere arranging some roses on the morning of her birthday party and mentioning that her husband has got her a new fan (I think I'd be upset if that's all I got). Then the Duchess of Berwick arrives to commiserate with the Lady that her husband is obviously having an affair with Mrs Erlynne who is the talk of society. Lord Windermere arrives home and insists that Mrs Erlynne is invited to his wife's birthday party that evening but can't explain why. O dear, why do people do this?

The party is full of gossip, particularly about Mrs Erlynne who flirts with everyone. Lady Windermere, however, can't take the humiliation and decides to run away with Lord Darlington who has expressed his love for her. She writes a note to her husband and leaves but when she gets to Lord Darlington's rooms he isn't there and Mrs Erlynne appears to plead with her to return to her husband. And then the men arrive from their club, not quite drunk enough yet to go home. The ladies hide but, during the banter, Lady Windermere's fan is discovered and accusations fly. That is when Mrs Erlynne reveals herself to the assembled menfolk and when Lady Windermere can slip away unseen... I won't take the story forward since that will spoil it for anyone with tickets to see the play.

This production is great fun. I really liked the stripped back stage with it's bare floorboards in the shape of a fan, the few bits of furniture as props and the clean, light view we're offered. It works so much better than the traditional over-furnished Victorian drawing room. It gave the actors space to move, especially the ladies in their large frocks.

We are definitely in comedy territory here with lots of witty word play and laugh out loud moments. It's also very contemporary with the #MeToo moment except here it's th women letting their men off the hook to give them a break. It's directed excellently by Kathy Burke with a light touch and letting the writing tell the story.

As with the other play I've seen in this season we are given a musical interlude by the characters in the play between the acts and tis time we have the Duchess of Berwick singing with the collective servants of the household giving us a rude song. The Duchess came out between acts three and four to give is her ribald song about being touched on the bum - or 'fan' - with lots of sly looks at the ladies maid beside her as she got too enthusiastic with her instruments. I very much approve of these interludes.

This production is great fun and I'd happily see it again. Wilde is still obviously using his characters to express his views on 'society' and the 'lost child/lost parent' storyline is a bit obvious but that doesn't distract from the production in the slightest. Jennifer Saunders is great as the Duchess of Berwick (and our interlude singer) while Samantha Spiro is both coquettish and caring as Mrs Erlynne. Joseph Marcell is also worth mentioning as Lord Lorton with his bunch of red roses. I also liked Kevin Bishop as Lord Darlington who was gifted with the words that 'We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars'. It's quite nice that those words are repeated a few hundred yards down the Strand on a monument to Oscar Wilde opposite Charing Cross Station.

 If you get the chance then go and see this play - it's great fun and well worth seeing!