Fawlty Towers: The Dining Experience

By the end of the 1970s, just after it aired, the classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers had been sold to 45 TV stations in 17 different countries, and it continues to entertain. Social climber Basil, domineering Sybil and the harried Manuel have become household names. In 1997, the idea came to Alison Pollard-Mansergh to create a new theatrical experience that would allow fans to immerse themselves in the chaos of Basil's hotel dining room on gourmet night – and the homage Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience was born.

Pollard-Mansergh is now the artistic director of the show and its production company, Interactive Theatre International – and she plays Sybil as part of one of six teams of performers constantly crisscrossing the globe. She's currently on a massive tour of The Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, where she says the TV show has many fans.

“People all around the world love British humour,” she says. “I think [the TV show] endured because no matter where you are in the world, it rings true. You can actually receive service like this – sad but true!”

At the two-hour show, the company manages to serve a full meal to patrons, while they marvel at Manuel's ineptitude and Basil's snobbery. This year they're returning to take over The Aegean restaurant in Fitzroy, but they've put on the show on stages, in theatre foyers, in real hotels, pubs, mansions, a castle, marquees, converted stables, wine cellars and river boats – and Pollard-Mansergh says the most unusual venue was a stationary double-decker bus in Ireland, “where Basil couldn't even stand up straight”.

Before starting the show up, Pollard-Mansergh owned a restaurant and says her food service experience stood her in good stead while working out the timing of the show. “Knowing how restaurants work, and how much preparation needs to be done certainly helped, and I've been able to teach the other performers from my experience,” she says.

The mantra of Basil's hotel was akin to Murphy's law: if it can go wrong, it will go wrong, and Pollard-Mansergh says her many trios of actors have managed to get out of some sticky situations themselves, including a brave audience member picking up a cowering Manuel and actually carrying him from the room to protect him from Sybil's wrath.

“The worst one,” she says, “was probably when we were suddenly faced with a power-cut – it was lovely to improvise with, and the solutions we were coming up with were real. Thankfully, everyone ended up getting fed. There was also the time when we were working in a hotel and there was a full 12-engine call-out because all the fire alarms had gone off. Thankfully it was right at the end of the show, and we actually had people asking how difficult it was to organise the fire department [to turn up]!”

WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 3 to Sunday 21 April, MICF, The Aegean