Jerome K Jerome was not kind about Reading in Three Men in a Boat. Sculling along the Thames, his narrator observes how the town “does its best to spoil and sully and make hideous as much of the river as it can reach” yet concedes it is “good-natured enough to keep its ugly face a good deal out of sight”.
Reading Rep, which co-produces this new comedy with Newbury’s Watermill, does not hold a grudge. Camille Ucan’s play is bookended by a rapturous quote about sailing from the 1889 novel and even has a skiff named after the author – although, as one character observes, Jerome “sounds like a bit of a twat”.
Ucan plays Jay, who dons glittery willy boppers and embarks on a hen do along the river with her mother, Gloria (Verona Rose), and grandmother Claudette (Ellen O’Grady). The trip has been planned to toast all three women’s upcoming weddings but questions hang in the air. When will Jay introduce them to her fiance? Why does Gloria moan about her betrothed? And what is Claudette hiding among their copious luggage?
Against Jasmine Swan’s chocolate-box pastoral backdrop, under Jonathan Chan’s woozy lighting, the story wends its way through the first half with familiar intergenerational comedy. There are sly jibes, much nagging and some sulking, with Gloria sounding like a needy child and Jay assuming the role of patience-stretched parent. Ucan has jettisoned most of the novel but kept the sense of travellers sharing stories and included an unconventional supporting role for Montmorency the fox-terrier.
Abigail Pickard Price’s production has winning performances, especially from O’Grady as the stiletto-wearing grandma given to pulling rank, whose technical knowhow extends to “Facebook, Kindle and cappuccino machine” but not email. Her memories of leaving the Caribbean for England typify the play’s reflective essence. When the journey enters more farcical territory, the results are far choppier. Although interspersed with bursts of dancefloor music, the play never seems authentically raucous and calls out for a deliriously funny set piece that does not arrive.
After the interval, Ucan delivers some knotty revelations in the plot and her dialogue is sharply attuned to parental control and intervening expectations – down to who their children marry and how they choose to do so. Jerome’s novel ensured readers it was a work of “simple truthfulness” and that’s often the case in this endearing escapade that brings ripples of laughter.
AtReading Rep theatreuntil 17 May. Then atWatermill theatre, Newbury, 22 May-7 June.