A brilliant sarky little piece

10 April 2012

One of the mysteries touched upon in Chris Roose's diverting adaptation of the writings of Hector Hugh Munro (aka Saki) concerns his literary alias.

One explanation says Saki is a character in The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam. Another says it is a diminutive form of a name of an incarnation of the Buddha. However, a third concerns a South American monkey of the same name which looks sweetly charming but packs a vicious bite.

Saki identified strongly with the animal kingdom and used it to fantasise the rebellion of untamed nature against Edwardian nurture. Accordingly, this production starts with the tale of an old woman re-incarnated as an otter which destroys the flower beds in her nephew's garden. From here we move on to tales including that of a toy dog used by a young wife to manipulate her husband and also that of a duplicitous Adonis-werewolf who likes to eat children. But beneath all this, Saki's insolent morality tales quietly foreshadow both surrealism and absurdism.

Roose's slick production adopts a Pythonesque sketch format and employs a movement co-ordinator to oversee the drawing room deportment.

Meanwhile the cast of four parody a decorous English restraint, laying bare the solemn nonsensicality at the heart of the writing. Martin Wimbrush is the quintessence of aristocratic charm, while Nick Waring slips easily through a series of period pin-up boys. Mel Churcher plays a haughty string of bitching aunts, and wide-eyed Jennifer James, in a perpetual wedding dress, plays a number of mischievous girlies. If the overall effect is a little quaint and Radio Four, Saki's scenarios remain bitterly sardonic.

Indeed, his deeply entrenched sarcasm suggests a fourth explanation for his soubriquet. Saki as in sarcastic. In school playground parlance, sarcasm was ever the lowest form of wit, but Roose and company suggest that Saki may also have judged it the highest form of intelligence.

The Beastly Chronicles Of Saki

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