Withnail and Me, Birmingham Rep Income – Bruce Robinson’s 1987 film is a theatrical hit

Let’s put our cards firmly on the table here. I’m a huge fan of Bruce Robinson’s cinematic masterpiece about two unemployed actors living in Camden Town in 1969 who escape to the countryside for a bit of rejuvenation and must have seen it several times since it was released on the big screen 37 years or so ago.

Clearly, I’m not the only one, for Withnail and me has since achieved serious cult status – to the extent that it’s somewhat surprising that it’s never been the focus of a Hollywood remake or even turned into a rock opera by the likes of Ben Elton.

It was therefore with some trepidation that I approached the initial run of a live theater version of this classic comedy at Birmingham’s Rep. However, the fact that it had been adapted for the stage by Robinson himself and was to be directed by the great Sean Foley offered significant hope. That said, there were two other major aspects of the production that gave a degree of concern: who was going to be cast as the self-centered and overconfident, yet cowardly Withnail, and how he was Uncle Monty’s predator and unwanted sexual fixation. will Adonis Siddique’s Marwood be portrayed? After all, mainstream attitudes towards the LGBT+ community have changed considerably since the film first appeared in the late 1980s, when the Thatcher government was still doing its best to demonize gay men and lesbians with their Section 28 legislation.

I needn’t have worried. Because Robert Sheehan’s portrayal of Withnail was an absolute hoot – and certainly no superficial imitation of Richard E Grant’s performance that launched his film career and created an enduring source of comedic jokes, if not a minor cult focused on characters. Malcolm Sinclair’s Uncle Monty was also a fresh creation and considerably less flamboyant than Richard Griffith’s film portrayal of the role. If anything, Sheehan was significantly more than Sinclair in this version.

Of course, the eminently quotable lines from the film’s script were all fine, with many fanboys and fangirls in the audience speaking them as they were spoken by the actors. The infamous “We want the best wines available to mankind. We want them here and we want them now!” he even got his own cheer from a good proportion of those in the house.

While the original film has a fairly small cast and all the characters, including Danny the Dealer and the imposing Presuming Ed, were represented without having to amalgamate any roles, replicating different scenes – such as walking or staggering through the bleak landscape of north to and from. the Crow pub – it just wasn’t possible on the Rep stage. However, Alice Power’s excellent set design – which often consisted of translucent screens and projections – more than compensated for the limitations imposed by an indoor theatre. Similarly, punctuating the show with a live band covering “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” “Sunshine of your Love” and other songs of the time, resplendent in hippie garb and led by the energetic Sooz Kempner, was a stroke of genius.

All in all, this production of Withnail and me it was a triumph and the standing ovation the cast received was certainly well deserved. Indeed, the show turned out to be so far from the fault that it could have been just a real celebration of British theater in front of a packed audience.