'Don't mention the war!' Fawlty Towers gets stage treatment at Capilano University

Capilano University theatre students are bringing a beloved sitcom — about an unloveable hotel — to the stage.

A two-act stage version of Fawlty Towers is being performed by instructor Bob Frazer's students at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts.

The play, written by John Cleese for Broadway, consists of two episodes of the classic British comedy, "A Touch of Class" and "The Psychiatrist," as well as some interstitial scenes from other favourite episodes.

• CBC Vancouver Returns As Sponsor for Talking Stick Festival

"I think [Fawlty Towers] is rated the number one … situational comedy of all time," Frazer said. "It's a farcical comedy based on basically how [hotelier Basil Fawlty and wife Sybil Fawlty] treat each other, and mostly how Basil treats the guests."

As anyone who's ever seen the show knows, Basil tends to treat his guests rather poorly.

'It was a completely different time'

Frazer says performing Fawlty Towers is teaching his students a lot about comedy, which he says is one of the more difficult genres of theatre.

But one extra challenge presented by the 40-year-old script is how politically incorrect it is by today's standards, which is why perhaps the most famous episode of them all, "The Germans," is not one of the ones performed.

• Andrew Sachs, bumbling Manuel from Fawlty Towers, dead at 86

"If you watch all the episodes again, which I did, there's some real racist sections and some misogynist sections that we can do without now," he said. "But it was the 70s, right? It was a completely different time."

The content of the two episodes being performed by Capilano students are largely free of those problems, he says, and audiences have enjoyed the production so far.

• John Cleese stops in at CBC Vancouver

"There's some iconic characters in there … and iconic situations."

Fawlty Towers has two performances left on Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts in North Vancouver.

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled: Don't mention the war! Fawlty Towers gets stage treatment at Capilano University