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Richmond acting students getting set for Fawlty performance

Madison Long and Jennifer Tong play Sybil and Miss Gatsby respectively in their university's production of UK sitcom Fawlty Towers

It’s arguably one of the UK’s most famous TV exports and two Richmond acting students are preparing to add some fresh ingredients to their much-loved characters.

Billed as the “best-written comedy ever to leave Britain” and a “mad-cap farce,” Fawlty Towers will be relived and, to a certain extent, re-invented by renowned Vancouver actor/director Bob Fraser in the Capilano University production next month.

Hugh Boyd secondary grad Madison Long, 25, will play the role of Sybil, hotel owner Basil Fawlty’s long-suffering wife, while McMath grad Jennifer Tong, 21, will play Miss Gatsby, one of a pair of elderly resident guests of Fawlty Towers.

Neither Long nor Tong — who are in their second and third years respectively of the university’s three-year Acting for Stage and Screen diploma — had ever watched an episode of the legendary sitcom, with the latter having never heard of it before.

Fawlty
McMath grad Jennifer Tong plays Miss Gatsby in her university’s production of the famous UK sitcom Fawlty Towers.

“I hadn’t really seen much of it; my uncle was a big fan though,” said Long, who didn’t think she auditioned that well for the Sybil role.

“British comedies are hard for me to get into; I wasn’t really sure why people found it so funny.

“But once I started learning who the characters were and what they were about, and once you realize what makes Basil Fawlty tick, then I started to get it.

“I did a lot of research on the history of the show and watched interviews with actor John Cleese (Basil Fawlty) talking about the characters and actress Prunella Scales talking about her character (Sybil).

“What I do is never going to be identical, I will bring something different for sure. I want to be a great contrast to Basil, I want to bring out her groundedness and her wild kind of humour.”

Fawlty
The main characters from Fawlty Towers, a hit UK sitcom from the 1970s

Although Tong had never even heard of the show, she said she got the humour right off the bat.

“Everyone else (on the cast) had heard of it and were really excited about it, so I kind of got off on that excitement,” said Tong.

“I looked it up online and thought it was very humorous. It was very old, but everything was still so funny; I got it straight away, I found myself laughing out loud all the time.

“But I’m trying not to watch the episodes we’re putting on, as I don’t want to do an imitation; I want the show to be our own.

“I want to bring a little crazy (to Miss Gatsby), perhaps a nymphomaniac side to her; I think that will be fun.”

Two episodes of Fawlty Towers — A Touch of Class and The Psychiatrist — by Exit 22 Productions at the university, is showing at the Blueshore Centre for the Performing Arts in North Vancouver from Feb. 8 to 11 at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on the 11th.

The show will feature a “gender-equal casting” with “subtle references snuck in for the keen-eyed Fawlty fan.”

Tickets are $22/$25/$10, and are available online at Tickets.CapilanoU.ca or by calling 604-990-7810.