Withnail and I at Birmingham Rep review - 'we went to the theatre by mistake'

Withnail & I is a long-loved cult classic in our house. Written in 1987 by Bruce Robinson, this is the first time it has been adapted for the stage - and it has been done by Bruce himself.

And double Olivier Award-winning Sean Foley, artistic director of Birmingham Rep, was definitely the man to direct it. From the live on-stage band belting out Hendrix, The Beatles and Procol Harum (King Curtis) to the remarkable sets and seamless set changes, this was a beautifully crafted production.

Set at the end of the swinging sixties, Withnail and I tells the tale of two unlikely friends and out-of-work actors - the flamboyant, boozy Withnail, and the shy, contemplative Marwood - living in squalor in a London flat until they decide to go on holiday to a cottage in the Lake District. But it all goes horribly wrong, leading to the heavily-quoted line 'We went on holiday by mistake!'

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That's the key to why this film is so well-loved, it's the fact it is so darn quotable. In fact, the guys behind us were quoting it so loudly, they were told to shush by an usher. It's one of those movies that, if you love it, you probably love every last line of it.

And this is what made it such a tough nut to crack. It was always going to garner a good audience but that audience was clearly a mixture of people who had never seen it before sat alongside those who knew it word for word. How do you keep everyone happy?

There were clear highlights for us, namely the drug dealer Danny, played by Adam Young (from TV's Sex Education), who completely stole the show with his brilliant depiction of the wild-eyed stoner who threatens Withnail with 'the embalmer' and drugs the rats in the flat. We also enjoyed Malcolm Sinclair's utterly convincing performance as Uncle Monty, who lends the pair his holiday cottage and attempts to take advantage of Marwood, played well by Adonis Siddique.

There were moments added that weren't in the film, such as both characters engaging in a sword fight and a self-penned poem from Monty, both of which were nicely done whilst the rest of the time, it remained fairly true to the original script.

I wondered if anyone other than Richard E Grant could do justice to the role of Withnail. BAFTA-nominated Robert Sheehan, best known from E4's Misfits, made for an Ade Edmondson-esque caricature of the lead character. He was entertaining but not hilarious, and we felt the first half galloped along at an alarming rate with barely a breath to stop and reflect on the words he was saying or to pause for comic effect. It's an almost impossible task to play a iconic character as you'll always be measured against the original, and he did a good job.

The tempo slowed satisfactorily in the second half and we enjoyed his Hamlet soliloquy at the end although it wasn't as tear-jerking as in the film. One of the best moments had to be when the characters jumped into an old Jaguar and 'drove' to Penrith, screaming 'scrubbers' out of the car before being arrested on the way back. The scenery whizzed past on the walls of the stage whilst the band blasted All Along the Watchtower - the masterpiece that's synonymous with the film.

All in all, it was an entertaining and well-crafted show. Find out more and book tickets via the Birmingham REP website. Runs until Saturday May 25 with a relaxed performance on May 20, a captioned performance on May 21 and an audio described performance on May 25.