Today everyone involved with the critically acclaimed and Olivier Award-nominated The Comedy About a Bank Robbery will be celebrating the show’s second birthday in the West End.
After a year of good behaviour at the Criterion Theatre, the second company has been released on parole and a new band of inmates have started performances in Mischief Theatre’s smash-and-grab hit.
Among the cast is PETER MCGOVERN whose previous theatre credits include The Christmas Truce (Royal Shakespeare Company), Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing (Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre Royal Haymarket), Barnbow Canaries (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Nell Gwynn (Apollo Theatre), The Madness of George III (Apollo Theatre and UK tour), Squirrels (Orange Tree), An Inspector Calls, The Shape of Things, Vincent In Brixton (Theatre by the Lake), The History Boys (West Yorkshire Playhouse and UK tour), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Royal & Derngate, Northampton), Kes (Liverpool Playhouse and UK tour) and Enjoy (Gielgud Theatre and UK tour).
Peter plays the role of Warren Slax in The Comedy About a Bank Robbery and Musical Theatre Review caught up with him to ask him more…
Can you tell us a little bit more about the plot and how your character Warren fits into the storyline.
The play centres around Minneapolis City Bank and a precious diamond belonging to a Hungarian Prince that is being stored at the bank for a week. Several of the characters in the play are determined to get their hands on the diamond, for various different reasons. I play Warren Slax, a 67-year-old bank clerk who has worked at the bank for over 30 years. Unlike most of the other characters in the play, I’m not interested in getting close to the diamond. In fact I’m a little worried that its visit might be bad news for the bank. I’m much more interested in getting a promotion, finding a friend and winning over the love of my life.
Samson Ajewole, Holly Sumpton and Peter McGovern in The Comedy About a Bank Robbery at the Criterion Theatre
How important is the musical element of the storytelling? How are the songs placed in the show and how involved are you in performing them?
Music plays a big part in the storytelling in the show and helps locate the action in a specific time and place. There are several full company montage sequences which move the action either through time or from one location to the next. Much of the music is a cappella and several members of the company have a number on which they take the lead. I get to lead a lovely 50s song called ‘Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)’ made famous by the Crew-Cuts.
The pace of the production must be so fast and physically demanding, how hard is it to make the slapstick look fresh and not rehearsed? Do you get to improvise?
You’re quite right that it needs to look fresh and spontaneous but in order to do that it needs to be well drilled and rehearsed. There are health and safety factors involved and you need to trust your fellow actor implicitly. It’s a real team effort and definitely not the time to be going off piste.
What have been the funniest moments of performing the show so far? Do you get injured?
It’s a very physical show so it’s rare not to have at least one member of the company nursing an injury at any one time. The key to keeping fit is intelligent warm-ups, plenty of rest and eating the right meals at the right times.
For me, the funniest moments so far have come from unexpected audience reactions. It’s an intimate theatre and our audience members often speak their thoughts out loud which can be very funny and hard to ignore. It’s hard to pretend you haven’t heard what’s been said when you have 500 people watching who know damn well that you have! Children, in particular, have absolutely no filter when responding to the show and that has proven quite amusing on a few occasions.
Is it fun having new actors join the show as the show progresses?
I’m new myself so I hope that the returning cast members would say yes. Understudies go on very frequently on this show and that’s always lots of fun as they bring subtle differences that add a freshness to the piece, keeps everyone else on their toes and really force you to go back to basics and listen.
Why do you think these pieces have captured the imagination of audiences in recent times?
I think there are a number of reasons. First and foremost, Mischief Theatre shows are terribly well written and very funny. Also, I think that going to theatre can be expensive, particularly if you’re coming from outside of London or bringing a family so I think that the average theatregoing member of the public wants to a) have an idea what sort of play they’re going to see and b) be sure that they’re going to enjoy themselves.
Titles like The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery promise to deliver exactly what they say on the tin and I think this adds to their appeal. From a creative point of view I think the pieces are daring, bold, fast paced and highly imaginative. The work is incredibly physical, so you don’t necessarily need to be a native English speaker in order to follow the story and have a good night out.
Finally, I think that the audience is aware of the physical challenges and can see a group of actors working incredibly hard in order to give them a good night out. I think our audiences really appreciate that and I’m glad they do as it makes all the aches, pains, bumps and bruises worthwhile.
Post this project, have you got your eye on any roles in the future?
Of course there are roles I would like to play, but I try to never look too far ahead as it can stop you from enjoying the present. Actors are always being asked ‘what’s next?’ or spending their own time worrying about their next role. I try and enjoy each and every performance of my current job, otherwise you wind up out of work, looking back and thinking – I wish I’d enjoyed that one more!
Tickets for The Comedy About a Bank Robbery are available HERE
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