Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell

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Comedy Closed 2 September 2006

Garrick Theatre Charing Cross Road, London

Revival of Keith Waterhouse's play Jeffrey Bernard in Unwell, based on the life and writings of Jeffrey Bernard, starring Tom Conti in the title role.

In a life devoted to alcohol, gambling and women, Jeffrey Bernard distinguished himself by excess. From his colourful contributions to the Spectator's Low Life column, Keith Waterhouse has created a gloriously funny and occasionally poignant stage entertainment.

"There's laughter round every corner of Ned Sherrin's production" The Times

Winner of the Evening Standard Best Comedy Award 1990, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell finds Bernard trapped overnight in his favourite Soho pub. A cast of ex-wives, friends and enemies join him in retracing scenes from a life packed with hysterical and absurbist incident.

Jeffrey Bernard in Unwell was originally staged in London at The Apollo Theatre in 1989 when the role of Jeffrey Bernard was fist played by Peter O'Toole then Tom Conti and then by James Bolam during the play's award-winning run of one year. The comedy has proved so popular that it returned to London's West End, first to The Shaftesbury Theatre in 1991 for a strictly limited two month season, and again in 1999 when it played another strictly limited two month season at The Old Vic Theatre. Now Tom Conti is reprising his role in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell in London for a strictly limited 12 week season with a cast that also includes Royce Mills, Elizabeth Payne, Tristan Gemmill and Nina Young.

"Ned Sherrin's production gets the most out of the often entertaining anecdotes" The Daily Telegraph

"This is a nostalgic revival of Keith Waterhouse's biographical comedy and erstwhile West End hit... based on the life and anecdotal writings of Bernard, the famously drunken Spectator columnist. Staged once again by Ned Sherrin, this is a cosily entertaining evening once it gets rolling. Certainly more amusing than your average alcoholic, Tom Conti exudes his characteristic charm in the title role." The Independent on Sunday

"Tom Conti's performance as Bernard is charming and funny, and the evening enjoyable" The Financial Times

"Is taking a trip down memory lane by reviving a play about taking a trip down memory lane too much of a good thing? Almost. Jeffrey Bernard in Unwell is saved, however because Keith Waterhouse's writing, Jeffrey Bernard's columns, is absolutely unsentimental. Likewise, Tom Conti's wonderfully nuanced performance is just sly enough. Conti emerges, mole-like, at the opening of Jeffrey Bernard in Unwell and, at once, and quite consciously, seduces the audience as he first realises his predicament, then celebrates it, and finally tires of it." The Sunday Telegraph

"I never knew Jeffrey Bernard, but I read his column, and one thing I am certain of: he didn't care a hoot what people thought. He was his own drunk... What spoils Ned Sherrin's nifty production, for me, is that Tom Conti plays JB as if he wanted to be loved. This, I suspect, is because Conti himself likes being loved... The result doesn't do Keith Waterhouse's witty, gritty writing any favours. Still, it'll do well." The Sunday Times

The Coach and Horses, where Jeffrey Bernard in Unwell is set, is at 29 Greek Street, just a short walk from the Garrick Theatre. It is still a pub but Norman Balon, the landlord, retired in April 2006.

Tom Conti on playing the role of Jeffrey Bernard: "Jeff lived life to excess - and for this play Keith has distilled his brilliant madness into one night trapped in The Coach and Horses pub in Soho where Jeff, armed with a bottle of vodka, revisits past loves and friends and enemies. It's an extraordinary celebration of life – hailed as one of the funniest evenings you can have in the theatre."

Keith Waterhouse on writing the play Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell: "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell is drawn, and in some parts expanded, from the writings of the Soho slouch-about-town Jeffrey Bernard, mainly his 'Low Life' column in the Spectator - a series of 800-word essays going back fifteen years or so... I don't remember quite how the notion of dramatizing Jeffrey Bernard's life and times came into my head; all I remember is not having very much idea how to set about it. At first I conceived it as a one-man show but couldn't arouse much interest in the project, either in myself or my associates. One-man shows are popular with actors, who like to have a fat part which they can take out of the suitcase from time to time and perform for a few evenings between engagements, but with some notable exceptions they tend not to be popular with managements, who find them a risky proposition. Then one night at the opera the whole thing suddenly fell into place. I had spent the afternoon with Jeff, reminiscing over a few large vodkas at the Groucho Club. During an interminable recitative in Tosca my mind wandered to a basement theatrical club we had been talking about, which both of us used to frequent. I remembered how a certain casting director, well known for his capacity for alcohol, had somehow managed to get himself locked in the place and had awoken under a bench at two in the morning. He rang the club proprietor who, mindful of his stock, begged him hysterically, 'Don't move. Don't touch anything. I'll be right down!' I had my play. I would lock Jeff in the Coach and Horses - his Soho second home - for the night, and while he was waiting for 'old Norman', the landlord, to come and rescue him, he would reminisce about his life and the people he had known, brood on his (usually disastrous) relationships with women and, as he remembered, make caustic comments on the passing show. A small company of actors would play the motley band of friends and hangers-on encountered over the years, making their entrances and exits from any direction except that of the conspicuously locked street door... Ostensibly talking to himself, Jeff would of course be addressing the audience. And, with the assistance of his repertory company of pub companions, he would enact the scenes he was describing."