Review: The Rivals
@ the Orange Tree until January 24th 2026
Director: Tom Littler
Writer: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Cast: Robert Bathurst, Patricia Hodge, Zoe Brough, Kit Young & James Sheldon
A little like the Orange Tree’s production of Twelfth Night this time last year, which relocated the action to the 1940s, Tom Littler’s revival of Sheridan’s 1775 comedy of manners takes place in the Roaring Twenties, just a couple of years before the crash of ‘29. The plot is much the same as in Sheridan’s original text, with all of its mistaken identities, mistaken motives and mistaken words, but in immersing the story in the era of the flapper, Littler imbues it with a heightened energy that amplifies the comic absurdity of it all. The result is a production that is regularly laugh-out-loud funny.
Here, the play’s most famous and enduring character, Mrs Malaprop (from whom we get the term “malapropism”) is played by Patricia Hodge, who portrays her as a delicious mix of camp and quietly intimidating. Alongside her are Robert Bathurst as the, by his own admission, frenzied Sir Anthony Absolute, a man of considerable wealth, Kit Young as Sir Absolute’s charming son Jack, a captain who masquerades as a poor sergeant, and Zoe Brough as Lydia Languish, Malaprop’s ward who is in love with the sergeant and who refuses to be betrothed to the man chosen for her by Mrs Malaprop: one Captain Jack Absolute…
It’s all the usual guff and nonsense you might expect from a late-18th Century satire about the trivialities of the aristocratic class, but Littler’s spin on the material feels refreshingly modern without sacrificing any of its quaint charm. As the chaos builds and the deceptions start to be prematurely exposed, the production takes on an almost feverish tempo that sweeps the audience up in the madness. Humorous fourth wall breaks, raucous song and dance numbers and brisk scene transitions that make excellent use of the small space help maintain the play’s swift pace, and the gags, which offer just the right balance of cheap puns and quick wit, come thick and fast.
Though it isn’t quite as effective or tight as last year’s Twelfth Night, The Rivals is still a real triumph for the Orange Tree. The performances are consistently strong, with everyone game to embrace the carnage, and Kit Young in particular is perfectly cast as the suave, irresistible captain. Like most plays of its ilk, the resolution can’t quite live up to the ridiculous set-up, and it might have been nice to see a more radical streak in the final act. Then again, this is the Orange Tree and they probably know their audience a little too well to change things too much. Regardless, this is a fabulous production and one that took me a little by surprise with how hilarious it was.
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐