Faulty Towers, a successfully organised chaos

by Mahes Perera

It was an afternoon of non stop hilarity at the matinee of the Faulty Towers Dining Experience presented by the Interactive Theatre International of Australia at the Mount Lavinia Hotel. It was a first time live experience for the guests who had absolutely no idea what they were in for after they were seated by Basil Faulty, Sybil his wife and the well meaning but disorganised Manuel.

Basil

Manuel and Sybil

For a moment you were unsure whether you were being directed to the right table what with the contradicting cross talk between Basil and his wife Sybil who never failed to check him by calling his name out in a high C pitch. Basil is terrified of his wife and as she screeches his name his tall frame freezes in its tracks. Progress slows down and all the while the guests are in fits of laughter.

The bread and butter service was an ideal one for the TV cameras to record. Basil moved around the tables slapping down the bread rolls on the guests side plates with no apology whatsoever and in between told the guests to take their elbows off the table. To those who did not respond he physically pushed their elbows off the table! In harmony with Basil, Manuel went around throwing a handful of butter sachets on each table and soup garnish on the side plate oblivious of the chaos he was creating and confident he was doing the right thing!

Came the soup service and the mayhem was unbelievable. Yet the chaos was sheer enjoyment. Some of the women were late in being served and during the wait one woman suffered the misfortune of having a denture in her soup.

Main course

Her genuine shriek brought Sybil on to the scene and her stern reprimands sent both Basil and Manuel scuttling to the kitchen, but not before Manuel was made to collect the soup bowls which he did in his unorthodox manner, back to the kitchen.

Things seemed to quieten down when the main course was served. But alas no! Manuel decided to go searching for his pet mouse under the tables unseating the terrified women. In one of his searches he came up brandishing a woman’s panties which sent the whole house into non stop laughter.

Basil ordered Manuel to take his pet mouse away from the dining hall and kill it. He does so, and comes back with a sad face and a black band on his arm signifying his sorrow. There were many other slapstick situations with audience participation which kept the guests in an extremely happy mood.

Manuel in the soup bowls episode

In a given situation one of the guests Glenda Parthipan was made to scream out ‘Fire’ and run out of the room. We were certain she wore her track shoes that afternoon! Then there was a guest who was proud of his mane of black hair but Sybil plaited his hair so that he had an appearance of tidiness.

Fictional hotel

Fawlty Towers spelt with a ‘W’ was the best British Television series of all time produced by the BBC TV and first broadcast in 1976/1979. This sit com had 12 episodes each written by John Cleese. Set in Fawlty Towers, a fictional hotel in the seaside of Torquay on the English Riveira the series turned out to be a huge success for John Cleese.

John Cleese played the role of Basil Fawlty, his bossy wife Sybil was played by Prunella Scales. The hapless Spanish waiter Manuel was portrayed by Andrew Sachs, while Corinne Booth was the normal chamber maid Polly. Their attempts to run the hotel in the midst of farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests had TV viewers glued to their sets each week.Faulty Towers the Dining Experience saw Paul O’Neill in the role of Basil, Sybil was played by Karen Hamilton while Geoffrey Reczek was the confused Manuel with a poor grasp of the English language. Everything that can go wrong went wrong and as the blurbs went it was organised chaos. But it was a success story.