First seen 45 years ago, the Olivier Award-winning and much-loved Jeeves Takes Charge visits Mayflower Studios from Tuesday 29 September to Saturday 3 October, ahead of a UK tour in 2027.
We caught up with Sam Harrison, who plays all 22 characters in the show.
What is the biggest challenge in performing well known comedy characters on stage?
You need to approach it in the same way you do any character – well known or not – from the ground up.
What does this person want, how do they try and get it?
And then draw from research and memory to build characters that you connect with. We used references from real people, previous actors, shapes, characters from commedia dell’arte. It’s great fun to have such a spectrum to work with. Then you throw everything together and try to make sure everyone is as believable as possible, whilst living in a completely ridiculous world.
How do you keep the humour fresh in every performance?
The audience is a major player in a comedy. If they’re not responding to something, and it doesn’t serve the story, it’s ultimately pointless.
It is extraordinary how different each audience is. Each one is a terrifyingly unstable cocktail made up of how many people have had a bad day, just got engaged, had a promotion, been dragged there by a friend, the temperature, did they miss a train, have they just fallen in love.
Depending on the combination it can really change people’s responses. So each performance actually becomes a conversation with them and how they are responding. It keeps you on your toes.
What makes Wodehouse’s humour still popular today?
His stories are full of such brilliant archetypes that we have always had and still do.
The foolish master being manipulated by the wise servant has been around since the Greeks. There is nothing funnier than seeing someone with supposedly high status being an absolute idiot, and Wodehouse excels in that. Then he tells the story with the most extraordinary language that is still sort of unsurpassed today. “He had the appearance of one who has been searching for the leak in life’s gas pipe with a lighted candle” Hilarious!
How does this production bring the story to life for modern audiences?
Well as we’ve said, the stories are timeless in themselves, but my director Hugh Wooldridge has worked tirelessly to create a production that honours the material, and is also alive for everyone today.
One of the most impressive parts of the production is the extraordinary set which is designed and projected upon by the wonderful Caite Hevner. It transports the audience to each location in the most ingenious ways and is constantly beguiling. It’s worth the ticket price alone.
What has been your favourite scene to perform?
I love farce, and Wodehouse wrote a lot for the theatre. At one point he had four shows on Broadway playing simultaneously. He contributed to some of the foundational works of musical theatre too – both Anything Goes and Show Boat. So he knows how to make dialogue that sings. So there’s a scene in Act 1 where Bertie is terrified and incapacitated before a supremely powerful headmistress whilst a 12 year old girl giggles and Jeeves pulls all the strings. And I get to play all of them. It’s great fun.
How did you prepare to play multiple characters?
Hugh and I have been working on the show for 5 years now, and it uses almost every tool I have in my kit.
As someone who has always loved watching character actors at work, I have a library of inspiration in my head. Then I’ve spent hours thinking about the sounds the characters make, the way they move, trying to make it all as distinct as possible. Then there’s everything that goes into making it actually happen.
I have a superb vocal coach in Sam Kenyon who has helped me make everything sustainable, I have a personal trainer making sure I’m fit enough to do it, and then I try to sleep when I can!
Tickets for Jeeves Takes Charge (Tuesday 29 September – Saturday 3 October 2026 are on sale at mayflower.org.uk or 02380 711811.
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