✭✭✭✩✩
<b>by Luke Kempner, directed by Owen Lewis
David Mirvish and James Seabright, Panasonic Theatre, Toronto
October 1-18, 2015
</b>
Violet: “When I think what the last ten years has brought, God knows what we’re in for now” (Season 2, Episode 7)
Who should see <i>Upside Downton</i>? Well, that depends. For fans of <i>Downton Abbey</i> it’s a must-see. For those who have never seen the television series, it’s a pass. The reason for this is that the overwhelming fun of the show comes from Luke Kempner’s amazing ability to mimic perfectly the voice and personal inflections of every character in the series from Lord Grantham himself down to little Daisy the assistant cook. Kempner is so good you know exactly who he is playing even before the character’s name is said. If you’ve seen the series you’ll be in heaven. If you haven’t you’ll wonder why everyone else is laughing themselves silly.
The action takes place mostly during the during the first season (2010), with a few adjustments, of the hugely popular ITV costume drama. This means that Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens in the series) is still alive and has not yet married Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery). Yet, Kempner feels free to import characters from later years such as Lady Grantham’s mother Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine) from 2012 and Lady Violet’s butler Spratt (Jeremy Swift) and the upstart schoolteacher Sarah Bunting (Daisy Lewis) from 2013. In all, Kempner plays an astounding 20 characters from the series and keeps them all perfectly distinct.
While there is no doubt about Kempner’s surprising talent for impersonation, the tale he has to tell is not all that engaging. There are two plots. In one, Violet the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith) announces to Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) that she plans to marry again and that her fiancé is at least 50 years her younger. In the other (a plot-line from season three), Lord Grantham has invested all his and his wife’s money in Radio Shack (the Grand Trunk Railway in the original), and thinks that only selling Downton Abbey will save him from bankruptcy. Scenes thus alternate rather paradoxically between preparations for the Dowager’s wedding which will be the biggest event Downton has ever seen and attempts by those upstairs and downstairs to raise money to rescue the estate.
Among the rather silly attempts to raise cash, Mrs. Patmore the cook (Lesley Nicol) appears on Gordon Ramsay’s <i>Kitchen Nightmares</i>; Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle), the manservant with the game leg, plays tennis at Wimbledon; and Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier), the scheming gay footman, is a contestant on <i>Jeopardy! </i>In the end the answer to the question of how to save Downton comes with embarrassing improbability from reality “star” Kim Kardashian.
What is rather too bad about all of this is that the farther away Kempner gets from satirizing <i>Downton Abbey</i> itself<i> </i>, the less interesting his show becomes. Yet, expanding his targets in popular culture does allow him to impersonate such people as Kardashian, Gordon Ramsay, John McEnroe, British tennis player Andy Murray, Alex Trebek and even Ian McKellan, all with his usual accuracy, but one feels that Kempner has not come up with enough material to sustain even this 70-minute-long show. A song-and-dance section about turning the series into a musical goes on far too long and the Wimbledon section which features impressions of two British sports commentators is lost on a non-British audience.
Kempner is aware of the flaws and pretences of the show. He has Lord Grantham cite random events in history and science as confirmation that the date of the first series is 1912 in a patent attempt to demonstrate that the show is not just fancy dress soap opera but a survey of the effects of history on one Yorkshire family. Kempner has Matthew point out some of the more bizarre plot twists like Matthew’s being confined to a wheelchair after returning from World War I then suddenly and miraculously being able to walk again when the plot requires it. Kempner also notes that the series is written so that Violet gets all the good one-liners. Had Kempner stayed along these lines, with a more pointed satire of the character traits and intrigues of Downton’s denizens, the show would be much more satisfying.
Nevertheless, the main point of <i>Upside Downton</i> is to highlight Luke Kempner’s talent as an impressionist and in that his only peer may be Canada’s own Rick Miller. Some of Kempner’s impressions really are just impressions. He makes Martha Levinson much more cogent and articulate than Shirley MacLaine’s raspy mutterings did, and his mimicking of Mrs. Patmore tends to slide into the vocal realm of Dame Edna. Yet, Kempner absolutely nails some characters you would think were the most difficult like the irritable Lady Mary or the monosyllabic Spratt. The show rests primarily on his wonderfully spot-on impressions of the Earl of Grantham with Hugh Bonneville’s hesitations and peculiarities of speech; Carson (Jim Carton) with his resonant bass voice and stringent diction; and the peacemaking head housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) with her Scottish accent and self-deprecating ways.
For fans of <i>Downton Abbey</i>, Kempner’s show remains riotously funny while he introduces new characters from the series. Yet, once he has introduced them all, it seems he has thought of nothing especially interesting for them to do. A parody of the events of the first season would have been material enough, but that’s not what Kempner chooses. Kempner is clearly blessed with a fantastic gift. With much revision he could turn Upside Downton into a more worthy showcase for it. <i> </i> <i> </i>
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a <i>Stage Door</i> exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Luke Kempner on poster for <i>Upside Downton</i>; Luke Kempner as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham. ©2013 Steve Ullathorne.
<b>2015-10-02</b>
<b>Upside Downton</b>