This is a double bill of two plays: Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys (1980) by Stephen Fry (b 1957), and Last Drinks by Duncan Ley. Running times: Latin (1:00), interval (0:15), Last Drinks (1:00).

Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys is set in a boys' prep school. It dances through literature and buggery, from the Latin teacher who sleeps with his 13-year-old student to the deputy head who likes to be beaten with wire coat hangers and crunchy peanut butter. It may well have been considered risqué when it was first performed by the Cambridge Footlights. But now it has the feel of a quaint period piece. It is the sort of thing that the British like to feed to foreigners and tourists who eagerly lap up the assertion that they all grew up in boarding schools tended to by matrons who smelled of germaline. And learned Latin, played cricket and gulped back 'British spunk and British phlegm' behind the bike sheds while being told that 'as Englishmen, you have a perfect right to treat God as your social equal.' Men like Latin teacher Dominic Clarke (Matthew Burton) sleep with boys because - in the great Edwardian tradition of Lord Baden Powell (1857-1941, founder of the Boy Scout movement) and JM Barrie (1860-1937, author, Peter Pan) - they never wanted to grow up.

'The greatest joy', sighs Clarke 'is found between a young boy's thighs. Or a good book.' Stephen Fry sprinkles this closed world with charm - as when, for example, the theatre becomes the classroom and all are dragged giggling to the front to receive exercise books. Paedophilia is neutralised and turned into the classically-ordained practice of pederasty - just another amiable quirk of the English character. After a lot of witticisms and amusing puns about public schools, it finally ensures that everyone lives happily ever after.

Matthew Burton portrays an ambivalent Clarke who jumps about rabbit-like when wiping the blackboard, issues curses to his class, and drinks daintily from a bone-china cup - or casually offers sado-masochistic Brookshaw a tub of Vaseline. Mark White as Brookshaw is a suitably crow-like figure whose greatest laugh comes from writing 'tuck' repeatedly on the blackboard, making the t's look like f's.

A slick production allows scenes to change mid-conversation and a host of other characters to come to life, so that it is easy to forget that there are only two actors. Well-written and confidently produced as it is though, Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys doesn't feel more than a sepia-tinted vignette of an England that hardly now exists.

Through a long second half, Last Drinks heads straight into a pub at the other end of the class divide. It takes a host of stock absurdist characters and puts them into that universal dystopia, a pub at the end of the world. A wind that destroys everything blows outside and people who can remember nothing sit inside.

Peter James's Portoz and Fanos Xenofos's Stout have been drinking 'the usual' for years. Michael Grinter adds an absorbing physicality to Old Man Mead, a craggy old creature sat in the corner and occasionally bursting into song. Matthew Burton is an effete diarist who spends eternity writing nothing. Mark White draws the eye as Venus the barmaid, a leering and indolent panto dame. It's a competently written and staged piece of theatre which neatly unravels as the action repeats itself over and over. But with lines such as 'Back then it was almost like something had happened', and 'nothing changes anything', it plays out like a love-ode to Waiting for Godot (1948) by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), without offering anything new.

Cast Credits: (alpha order within plays): Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys: Matthew Burton - Dominic Clarke. Mark White - Brookshaw. Last Drinks: Matthew Burton - Dram. Michael Grinter - Mead. Peter James - Portoz. Mark White - Venus. Fanos Xenofos - Stout.

Company Credits: Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys: Writer - Stephen Fry. Director - Adam Spreadbury-Maher. Last Drinks: Writer - Duncan Ley. Director - Nathan Godkin. (Both plays): Designer - Sophie Mosberger. Lighting Designer - Mark Summers. Sound Designer - Ben Hillyard. Technical Operator - uncredited. Assistant Director - Stephanie Plant. Stage Manager - Narin Cakir. Resident Stage Manager - Loz Tait. Press Office - Caty Smith. Graphic Design - Mans Ericsson. Producer - uncredited. Company - Good Night Out. Website - www.cocktaverntheatre.com.

END

(c) Philippa Tatham 2009

reviewed Friday 26 June 2009 / The Cock Tavern, Kilburn High Road, London UK

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com