The In Players have a history of staging not only classical and contemporary work, but also a succession of original works from the remarkable pool of creativity in our membership. Even so, the 2010 season is already remarkable for having brought our audiences not just one but two extraordinary world-premieres. Following Svarupa’s faithful homage to the commedia del arte In Yonder Green Glenn, the current production, Deaf on the Nile is a spot-on spoof of just about every genre that failed to outrun the savage wit of co-authors and co-directors Stuart Idell and Peter Hopwood: A tried and tested team that has brought several earlier works of mirth to our stage.

Deaf on the Nile is not highbrow philosophical theatre. Rather it revels in being quite the opposite. It is unapologetically bawdy and politically incorrect, but always with a good-natured wink and tongue firmly planted in cheek which ensures that it is comical, not crass; uproarious, not offensive. Reminiscent of the popular British comedy films, the Carry On series, as well as the sitcom ’Allo ’Allo (if only because of Edwin and Kevin’s emotive French and German accents), Deaf on the Nile gets its many laughs at the expense of murder mysteries, old monster-horror movies, espionage thrillers, and various more fleetingly alluded to genres. And while it would be an overstatement to call the play a musical, an excellent Egyptian chorus adds some delightfully witty musical interludes to the humorous action.

There is a plot involving great game politics at the end of the 19th century, Egyptian tombs and curses, a dotty half-deaf archaeologist and his entirely blind and uninhibited daughter, plus a sensual Mata Hari; but that almost does not matter, save that it provides an excuse to watch a parade of colourful characters come to life and engage in their outré antics.

The excellent cast looks to be having at least as much fun as the audience, and included no fewer than five actors making their In Players debut (hailing from four different countries, by the way) alongside a few In Player veterans and relative newcomers: A welcome infusion of fresh talent. These newcomers include Jill Daniels as an exotic Mata Hari fully able to wrap a man around every finger and quite possibly the odd toe; Renate Stalman as a Mummy with unusually expressive physicality and a gentler side mostly kept under wraps; Matt Percy as Algernon, personifying the less-than-savoury side of British colonialism; Kevin Knauer whose Teutonic Adolph would have been right at home in an episode of ’Allo ’Allo; and lastly Masud Husain as the police inspector who is not quite as hapless as he might at first seem.
The rest of the cast consisted of more familiar In Players talent, all of whom lived up to their reputations. As the terminally nervous Albert Simon Murphy took on his largest In Players role yet and proved himself more than up to the task. Ken Kitchen as the sinister Abdul once again demonstrated why he is one of the company’s most versatile and dependable character actors; as Davidoff Terry Sinclair followed up his fine Yonder Green Glen debut by again owning several scenes, while Edwin Nichols, when not doubling as part of the chorus, infused pretty much every comical French stereotype into his Pierre. No one plays the befuddled Brit better than Mike Williams as he again showed as the archaeologist; and finally Janette Warburton as Victoria, the blind savant archaeologist’s daughter, brilliantly blended Victorian naïveté with a sybaritic appreciation for life and its many pleasures, all the while looking and sounding as though she just stepped out of an Agatha Christie novel.

A few brief but well-deserved words of praise for other aspects of the production: The vocal talents of the singers – Irene van Berkum, Nina Cohen, Danielle Renton and Edwin Nichols – are well-known to the In Players and were put to fine use here, not only for the high quality of the vocalization but as a multiplier of the whimsical mood with a selection of songs (inevitably including Walk like an Egyptian) that were not so much breaks from the action as part of it. The set was very simple (with the notable exception of Ken Kitchen’s elaborate, eye-catching sarcophagus) but with a series of clever backdrop slides, entirely effective; the costumes entirely in tune with the period and the personages; and the stage management and technical work seamless in support of the performers. It all adds up to a diverting evening that is a testimony to what you get when the remarkable talents of individual In Players come together to make theatrical magic.

Johan Statius Muller