Review: Jeeves Takes Charge at Charing Cross Theatre

★★★★

Photo credit Craig Fuller

There is something wonderfully comforting about stepping into the world of P.G. Wodehouse. It is a place of country houses, unsuitable engagements, complicated social obligations and, above all, the terrifying prospect of being summoned by an aunt.

In Jeeves Takes Charge, adapted by James and Edward Duke with Hugh Wooldridge, three Wodehouse stories are brought to the stage, following the seemingly incapable Bertie Wooster and the quietly omnipotent Jeeves, who has an uncanny ability to know precisely what his master needs before Bertie has even worked out what the problem is.

The programme offers a fascinating glimpse into Wodehouse himself. Sir Edward Cazalet, Wodehouse's step-grandson, writes about a man of extraordinary intellect and productivity, but also one whose early life was fragmented and unsettled. Wodehouse's experiences of family, and particularly those formidable female relations, seem to have found their way into his writing. The aunties are very much woven into this play, looming large over Bertie's life and proving, in their various ways, rather more alarming than any international crisis.

At the centre of it all is Sam Harrison, who has the extraordinary task of playing all the roles. And what a task it is. Harrison moves between Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, the aunties, a schoolgirl, the fiancée Florence, a Boy Scout, a doddery uncle and a host of others with astonishing ease. This is not simply a question of putting on different voices, although the variety of vocal characterisation is impressive. It is in the physicality too: a change of posture, a turn of the head, a movement across the stage, and suddenly we are somewhere else with someone entirely different. Here is an actor very clearly working his craft, and enjoying every minute of it.

Photo credit Craig Fuller

The production makes particularly good use of the relatively intimate space at Charing Cross Theatre. Caite Hevner's set and video design, Tim Mitchell's lighting and Paul Groothuis' sound work together beautifully, taking what begins as a simple room and transforming it into a succession of locations. One moment we are in a comfortable drawing room, the next in a train carriage or another corner of Wodehouse's peculiar and wonderfully privileged world. It is clever without being showy, allowing the imagination to do some of the work too.

Although the stories belong to 1925, and we are now living in a very different world, the central joke remains remarkably timeless. The servant is plainly the cleverer man, quietly running his master's life while allowing Bertie to believe that he remains in charge. Anyone who has ever watched a friend make the same bad decision repeatedly may recognise something familiar here.

This is gentle comedy rather than comedy with a sharp edge, but there are plenty of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. Wodehouse's language still sparkles, and Harrison's comic timing ensures that the silliness never becomes tiresome.

Jeeves Takes Charge is a charming, old-fashioned evening in the best sense of the phrase: a chance to leave modern life at the theatre door for a couple of hours and spend time in the company of a very capable valet and the gloriously hopeless man who needs him.

Charing Cross Theatre: The Arches, Villiers Street, London WC2N 6NL

13 August – 6 September 2026

Tuesday - Saturday 7.30pm

Wed matinee 2.30pm

Saturday & Sunday matinee 3pm

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