JEEVES TAKES CHARGE
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
💛 Date: 13th August – 6th September 2026
💛 Location: Charing Cross Theatre, Villiers St, London WC2N 6NL
💛 Time: 7:30 pm
Adapted from three stories from Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster collection, Jeeves Takes Charge is structured around the familiar Wodehouse predicament: Bertie Wooster creates a problem, fails spectacularly to solve it and eventually requires Jeeves to rescue him.
In the first act, Bertie's engagement to the imperious Florence Cray sends him into a desperate attempt to satisfy her increasingly unreasonable demands, including the theft of his uncle's manuscript. Jeeves, recognising the danger long before his employer does, quietly sets about correcting Bertie's romantic mistake. The second act plunges into the disastrous prize-giving ceremony involving the heavily intoxicated Gussie Fink-Nottle, while the final act finds Bertie facing the terrifying demands of Aunt Dahlia, who expects him to entertain guests at her garden fête with singing, storytelling and tap-dancing.
Sam Harrison's performance is a masterful achievement. It is technically demanding, physically exhausting and consistently inventive.There is something flamboyant and distinctly camp about Harrison's interpretation of Bertie, while his Jeeves is slower, deeper and more sonorous. The contrast between the two is immediately effective: Bertie is all nervous energy and impulsive enthusiasm, while Jeeves appears to exist on an entirely different plane of consciousness. He then incredibly shifts between playing aristocrats, aunties, schoolgirls, servants and hopeless young men with astonishing speed, sometimes within the same exchange. A change of voice, posture or physical rhythm is enough to make one character disappear and another emerge. The final bows, in which he returns to his various characters one after another, provide a wonderfully playful conclusion and underline the sheer scale of what he has accomplished.
The production's visual world is equally extraordinary. Caite Hevner's design begins with a simple Mayfair sitting room, dominated by a sofa and a collection of empty frames. Yet the room continually changes around Harrison. The furniture becomes part of the storytelling, with the sofa repeatedly becoming a place of collapse, conversation, contemplation and catastrophe. Additionally, Tim Mitchell's lighting, and Paul Groothuis' sound transform the space into trains, schools, country houses and passing landscapes, allowing the production to travel enormous distances without ever leaving the intimate Charing Cross Theatre.
The plots may belong to another century, but the underlying comedy has barely aged. The characters are driven by recognisable anxieties: wanting to please someone, avoiding embarrassment, escaping an unwanted commitment and desperately hoping that somebody more competent will arrive to sort everything out. Bertie remains the eternal incompetent whose confidence is considerably greater than his ability, while Jeeves quietly manipulates circumstances from the sidelines. The joke is not simply that Jeeves is smarter than Bertie; it is that Bertie is blissfully unaware of just how dependent he is upon him. That relationship gives the production its warmth. Even when Bertie is being spectacularly foolish, we are encouraged to adore him rather than despise him.
Jeeves Takes Charge is entertaining, energetic and hilarious. Above all, it is a celebration of theatrical skill: a reminder that sometimes the greatest pleasure in theatre is simply watching an exceptionally talented performer completely surrender himself to the joy of performing.
By Nicole Kent
Director:Hugh Wooldridge
Producer: Steven M. Levy for Charing Cross Theatre Productions LTD
Adapted by James and Edward Duke, Hugh Wooldridge
Lighting: Tim Mitchell
Sound: Paul Groothuis
Design: Caite Hevner
Actor: Sam Harrison
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