Advertising executive Robert (Pollo Hamburger) is planning a trip on his yacht with some friends. Unfortunately for him, his estranged wife Lies (Margreet Heemskerk), invites herself along for one last chance of reconciliation. Amongst the people Robert did invite are his competent yet clumsy co-worker Joop (John Leddy) and his wife Paulien (Ellen Röhrman), as well as his old friend Bruno (John Lanting), a flamboyant scriptwriter. Bruno brings along a surprise of his own: leaving his wife (who was supposed to do the cooking) at home, he's taken a slip of a girl along whom he's only just met: Mela de Bruin (Gerdi Wind). Still, Bruno keeps forgetting her name. Naturally some cock and bull excuse has to be invented on the spot to merit Mela's company, and while Joop and Connie prove rather gullible (especially Joop), Lies does not.
In adapting Michael Pertwee's play 'Six of One', Theater van de Lach foreman John Lanting appears to have stayed quite close to the source material for once, seeing that Pertwee also gets a director and 'Mis en Scene' credit. For once, Lanting leaves the bumbling fool part to another, John Leddy, who was enjoying great success co-starring in the popular sit com "Zeg 'ns Aaa" at the time. Leddy steals the show wearing increasingly loud clothes, loses his brand new contact lenses (typical eighties routine, when contacts were still quite expensive). Later on he naturally manages to swallow one, and repeatedly falls off the boat and/or ruining the other's valuable possessions. Meanwhile, Lanting, plays a playboy who can't keep up with his young conquest any longer. The fact that his profession is a script writer is one of those typical writer's excuses to give one particular character the wittiest lines and puns.
With the settings confined to the yacht, and only one crew member, Juan, who doesn't have any lines, there are less characters and there is less space for them to go around than usual. Still, the main 6 still manage to have enough secrets and lies between them to last a couple of hours. For starters, Robert is unaware that his wife has had an affair with Bruno, just as Joop hasn't a clue his wife Paulien is in love with Robert (which is why Robert and Paulien want Joop to take a job offer in Japan). Unfortunately, as is often the case in these televised stage plays, the proceedings do go on a bit too long. When all the affairs have seen the light of day and the confrontations have passed, instead of curtains, the remaining characters jus sit around contemplating everything that has just happened. Sure, the eventual coda involving Bruno and two women crammed into a tiny sleeping quarters is okay, but this is one play that could, and should have ended about 20 minutes earlier.
7 out of 10
In adapting Michael Pertwee's play 'Six of One', Theater van de Lach foreman John Lanting appears to have stayed quite close to the source material for once, seeing that Pertwee also gets a director and 'Mis en Scene' credit. For once, Lanting leaves the bumbling fool part to another, John Leddy, who was enjoying great success co-starring in the popular sit com "Zeg 'ns Aaa" at the time. Leddy steals the show wearing increasingly loud clothes, loses his brand new contact lenses (typical eighties routine, when contacts were still quite expensive). Later on he naturally manages to swallow one, and repeatedly falls off the boat and/or ruining the other's valuable possessions. Meanwhile, Lanting, plays a playboy who can't keep up with his young conquest any longer. The fact that his profession is a script writer is one of those typical writer's excuses to give one particular character the wittiest lines and puns.
With the settings confined to the yacht, and only one crew member, Juan, who doesn't have any lines, there are less characters and there is less space for them to go around than usual. Still, the main 6 still manage to have enough secrets and lies between them to last a couple of hours. For starters, Robert is unaware that his wife has had an affair with Bruno, just as Joop hasn't a clue his wife Paulien is in love with Robert (which is why Robert and Paulien want Joop to take a job offer in Japan). Unfortunately, as is often the case in these televised stage plays, the proceedings do go on a bit too long. When all the affairs have seen the light of day and the confrontations have passed, instead of curtains, the remaining characters jus sit around contemplating everything that has just happened. Sure, the eventual coda involving Bruno and two women crammed into a tiny sleeping quarters is okay, but this is one play that could, and should have ended about 20 minutes earlier.
7 out of 10