Brand-new theatre company The Department of Ulterior Motives explode onto the scene with a rip-roaring debut – a blistering, seat-of-your-pants adaptation of G K Chesterton’s farce-thriller The Man Who Was Thursday. Playing out within the black-box setting of The Rotunda Theatre, this is a laugh-a-minute comedy caper that’s set to prove a real hidden gem of this year’s Brighton Fringe.
It is the turn of the 20th century and a wave of nefarious anarchism has gripped the country. No sooner has under-achieving poet Rosalind Gregory found herself the victim of one of these anarchists’ dastardly schemes than she is suddenly enmeshed within an ill-thought yet over-articulated plan. One that will see her try to infiltrate the organisation’s inner circle. Can Rosalind trade sonnets for subterfuge or will she find herself unmasked and undone?
This production, simply, is nothing short of immaculate. Running like a ‘60s Michael Caine led crime caper that has tipped into Wonderland, it wholeheartedly leans into the ridiculous. It’s absurdism, however, is beautifully orchestrated, tuned so finely that not a beat is missed. Helmed by the directing partnership of Samuel Masters and Morgan Corby (with Masters also behind the adaptation), the production rattles along at a blistering pace. The cast dexterously jumps from role to role with the help of costumes, accents, props and placards that prove imaginative in their lack of imagination. It is truly a deft ensemble, that the company have assembled, a cast that grips the virtuosity of the form with both hands, capably deploying every trick in the commedia book. Slapstick underpins wordplay and fourth wall breaks with some delightful set pieces involving car chases and sword fights which have the audience mesmerised.
This is farce at its very best. Expertly executed and confidently deployed, never once losing sight of the plot it serves. But also… It is fun! Assured in its silliness, it revels in its own anarchic glory. There’s plenty of rhyme and very little reason and that, tonight, is wholly the point. It’s a wonderful mix of flare and form that is sure to leave even the most hard-hearted of audience-members a devoted fan…archist.
The Rotunda Theatre (Brighton Fringe), Tuesday 13th May 2025
For tickets and further information click here
