Amalgam of three episodes
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from September 1991.
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The title of the play, "Communications Problems with the Kipper, the Corpse and the Psychiatrist" reflects the titles of the original episodes brought together as the basis of this comedy, starring Clive Munyard as Basil Fawlty and Carolyne Beresford-Wylie as Basil's wife, Sybil.
The common thread that joins the three individual episodes is centred around money mislaid by hotel guest by crusty Mrs. Richards, (Fayanne DeFreitas) a rather horrid woman who also happens to be deaf. In the interim, Basil places money on a horse race, much against the stringent rules of his wife. The horse wins. Sybil finds out about the winning and wrongly assumes the amount to be the sum missing from Mrs. Richards. This issue obfuscated by Major Gowan, played by Roger Carne, who, for a while, holds the winnings for Basil.
In the interim, one of the hotel guests, a Mr. Leeman (Tim Walsh) passes away - enter the corpse. The corpse turns up in a variety of funny and unlikely spots until it can be correctly disposed of by hotel management. As if this state of affairs is not enough for the Fawlty's to contend with, another guest, a Mrs. Chase, finds that their dog has been poisoned, possibly by a suspect sausage or kipper, which may, or may not have been given to the animal with the sole purpose of causing its untimely demise. Enter the kipper. Finally, Dr. Thurston, (Philip Thomas) another guest at Fawlty Towers, is visited by his wife, a psychiatrist (Gretchen Alan). Basil has an absolute aversion to shrinks and the interplay between the two provides further comedy all heightened by Basil's possible tryst with guest, Mrs. Rayleen White, (Valerie Cottier) and Sybil's suspicions of this illicit affair. Enter the psychiatrist. The cast is enhanced by veteran of the Cayman stage, Clive Munyard, normally seen in more serious fare, who bends his stage expertise to encompass this complex comedy role.
Other members of the cast include, Costas Takkos as Manuel, the Spanish waiter who often finds himself in a pivotal spot as the comedy melds, Kate Bowring as the harassed maid, Polly, Cyril Garbutt, Patrick Gooden, Shelly Adam, Billy Culbert, and Maria Fisher. The Cayman Drama Society has produced two Fawlty Tower plays in the past.
Fawlty Towers, an award winning television series, enjoyed long runs in England, and also proved popular in the United States.
