A Laugh for Lit­er­ary Lovers 

Reviewed by Nadia Free­man

Richard Huber’s Won­der­ful opens with Lady Hermione and her but­ler Roberts star­ing straight past the audi­ence.  We can not tell imme­di­ate­ly what their rela­tion­ship is, if they are fond of each oth­er, if there is ten­sion, or how long they have known each oth­er. 

The set is bare­bones, with a chair, and a small drink cart to ensure Lady Hermione’s thirst is con­sis­tent­ly sup­plied for.  This sim­ple set-up leaves the audi­ence to focus on the core of the pre­sen­ta­tion, which is the two char­ac­ters and the rela­tion­ship between them.

Lady Hermione’s (played by Sarah Barham) make-up and cos­tume indi­cate she is a mature woman set up with all the com­forts of any well-to-do per­son in Eng­land in the 1920s and has not had to wor­ry about work­ing or eco­nom­ic strug­gles.  So much so that she choos­es not to engage in con­ver­sa­tions about hard­ship such as the war.  And Roberts (Blaise Barham) her but­ler while ini­tial­ly main­tain­ing a for­mal employ­ee demeanour with her (between their quick-wit­ted sequences of ban­ter), we see in fact approach­es Hermione’s needs with the intu­ition of some­one who has known her a very long time.

This is a sto­ry about a rela­tion­ship between two peo­ple who have the inti­ma­cy of know­ing each oth­er their whole lives but are con­fined by the soci­etal roles they are expect­ed to play.  I was fas­ci­nat­ed by the dif­fer­ent devices used to tell this sto­ry and scenes of impor­tance, includ­ing rep­e­ti­tion of descrip­tions of scenery, objects and sounds.  As well as how the nar­ra­tive dipped in and out of time and place seam­less­ly to a point where some­times I wasn’t sure of when the sto­ry was placed and how old the char­ac­ters them­selves were.  

Won­der­ful is won­der­ful­ly fun­ny.  Hermione’s char­ac­ter who finds most things ‘annoy­ing’ is excen­tric and play­ful, some­one who has pur­pose­ly decid­ed to main­tain a child­ish facade that brings about some fan­tas­tic absur­dist humour.  She and Roberts bounce off each oth­er in a way that through­out the course of the play bring us the audi­ence into the per­son­al jokes that they have shared togeth­er through­out their lives.  Some extreme­ly fun­ny moments are the con­tin­u­ous lit­er­ary and film nods that are scat­tered through­out the script and the expres­sions of the cast at the scene ends.

It would be bril­liant to see this show incor­po­rat­ing oth­er fea­tures such as sound design, as there are par­tic­u­lar ref­er­ences to sense ‘the sound of water’ that could help to bring an immer­sive expe­ri­ence for the audi­ence.

Won­der­ful can be best described as com­fort and ten­sion swirled togeth­er in a mar­ble cake bat­ter; a lit­er­ary dra­ma that cov­ers war, sex, mar­riage and a reflec­tion on the con­straints of wealth.