You've gotta laf

My first West End show, on a family outing years ago, was 'There's a Girl in my Soup.' Saturday I went to a new outing from another farce of the same era, Marc Camoletti's Boeing Boeing at London's Comedy Theatre. Farce is a wondrous mix of the utterly vacious and some bright shining genius, melodramatic and overplayed yet also played as tightly as can be, the fun of knowing what is coming and the joy of the actual unravelling. The cast was pitch perfect, especially Michelle Gomez making a saurkraut meal out of the German accent of her character, the air stewardess Gretschen. I love the sheer craftsmanship of great farce. Three hours of unalloyed laughter, real characters and even a happy ending, is a tonic.