The uniquely British sense of humor created by the Monty Python comedy troupe inspired composers Roee Oppenheim and Zohar Sharon of the Revolution Orchestra to create an entirely new performance: The Passion of Monty Python.
Sketches from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the BBC program that launched the Pythons to fame between 1969 and 1974, were screened alongside key scenes from films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983).
The juxtaposition of previously aired materials with live sketches, mostly played by Ben Perry, and a bemused live orchestra made the evening a delight.
Few evenings at the opera start with the orchestra tuning its instruments to the sound of a goose being strangled, and even fewer feature a party game of “Find the dead fish we hid under your seats.” The happy winner was invited on stage by a jubilant Perry, in drag, to collect a huge check, flowers, and a baby. Who could ask for more?
Briticism was lavishly offered with words like ponce, nicked, git, and the like. Much like the 1970 “Spam sketch,” in which Terry Jones played the part of a working-class waitress who offered her clientele a rapid-fire list of spam-filled dishes, this veneer of over-the-top pretend ‘Englishness’ is part of the fun.
British humor takes the stage
Highly educated, the Pythons depict a funny-house abbreviation of England, which is side-splitting funny and without much malice. When Jones breaks the litany of spam to offer Lobster Thermidor, the joke works on two levels. It is an out-of-context dish the character would be unable to offer, presented to people who had never had it. It is also an erudite wink between the upper-middle-class writers and those watching on their television sets.
When Perry strutted in front of the Moran Singers Ensemble and exclaimed the importance of Empire Day, reasoning that we must “keep China British,” the audience laughed at the silliness. Yet the British Empire was once a real world power. One reason the Pythons were so successful is because they offered laughter when facing a generational loss. Brought up by people who insisted they study Latin grammar and also kowtow to figures like Tchaikovsky, they reached adulthood at a time when these things meant a lot less.
The complex comedy sketch included in the program, in which an action figure of Tchaikovsky is deconstructed, followed by an escape artist (Perry) banging his head against a piano, was a necessary pushback at the time. The show is also a wonderful demonstration of Oppenheim’s ability to goof around at the opera. When he enters the stage riding an imaginary horse or sticks an entire orchestra up his nose, he is definitely being a sport.
The Pythons were magnificent at condensing history and actualizing it. The real eighth-century Viking raids on English monasteries transformed into horned Norsemen sitting at a 1970s coffee shop eating spam is but one example. They also retold the Arthurian myths, the backbone of the English cultural identity of a shining Camelot, as a farce with killer rabbits.
They made comedy what it is today. Without them, the now-running television program HaYehudim Ba’im (The Jews are Coming), with its Masada Kaban sketch in which a young man asks why he should take his own life during the Roman siege, would not exist. The mental health officer solves his concerns by issuing him a permit to commit suicide near home and then cheerfully hurls himself out the window.
Equal parts homage to a uniquely gifted team of writers and performers, cabaret, and a musical evening where the ire of a dead parrot is evoked and appeased, Monty Python’s Passion will delight fans and possibly tune a new generation into the meaning of life.
The Passion of Monty Python is playing on Saturday, April 20, at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. It is 90 minutes long, with no intermission. Tickets are NIS 160-220. English with Hebrew subtitles. Call (03) 692 777 for bookings. The Israeli Opera, 19 Shaul Hamelech St., Tel Aviv. Performances will be held in Herzliya (Saturday, March 23, at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.) and Haifa (Thursday, April 18, at 8:30 p.m.). Visit https://www.rev-orch.com/home-eng/ for more information.
