Faulty Towers Dining Experience set to take over Fife venue for two nights of comedy mayhem

Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience comes to The Vic, the pub, kitchen and social club based in St Mary’s Place, St Andrews, on November 22 and 23. Ticket info here.

It was August 2008 that saw a smash-hit production, all the way from Australia, enjoy its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe. An instant hit, suddenly three much loved, iconic sitcom characters were back, live on stage - well, in a restaurant - creating laugh out loud mayhem. Now, after more than a decade on the Fringe, the production from Interactive Theatre International (ITI) is set to embark on its first Scotland Tour.

A loving tribute to the Seventies’ BBC series, dinner and theatre collide like never before in Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience.

Take your seats at your table in the ‘Faulty Towers’ restaurant and prepare for a service like no other, delivered by Basil, Sybil and Manuel themselves. As your starter is unceremoniously plonked before you the chaos begins, actually it starts even before that but let’s not give too much away.

With an original script woven through a three course meal, watch as the terrifying Sybil rules the roost, as Basil loses it, and as Manuel finds he can’t do right for doing wrong. With a nod and a wink to all your favourite moments from the classic sitcom, Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience is a side splitting evening of food and laughter… and just a bit of audience participation.

Jared Harford, Executive Producer of ITI, explains why, in the post pandemic landscape the company decided the time was right to tour.

“With all the data we’ve gathered from the Fringe over the years, we know that people come from all over Scotland to see us. Now it’s our turn to come to them,” he said.

Not that their 11 consecutive years, doing two, sometimes three, shows a day during August in Edinburgh is an achievement to be taken lightly. Indeed, in 2019, ITI even programmed their own venue for the first time.

Harford recalls, “In 2019, we did our ‘massive’ Fringe. We had 16 different shows at our venue. It was amazing, something I’d always wanted to do. We were planning to do the same in 2020. We had put down a £40,000 deposit on the venue and then the pandemic hit. We lost everything.”

Although The Dining Experience returned to Fringe in 2023, ITI soon discovered the landscape had changed and it was time to venture further afield, hence their Scotland tour, which brings not one but two Basils north of the border - Jack Baldwin, associate artistic director, will share the role with Dave Tremaine, who has been with the company for eight years.

“To be honest, they are both just as good as each other, so yes, go and see the one who inspired The Show That Goes Wrong and then go and see the one who wrote a hit show us in Australia.”

Having dominated Edinburgh every August for so long and now embarking on their first Scottish tour, Harford still has great ambitions for ITI outside of The Dining Experience.

“I’ve got this dream that either one day someone will write something for us that involves music, or I just want to stage a musical. The only problem with that is that Australia is such a large country with such a small population that it’s difficult to get around, consequently, people aren’t in the habit of going to see things. That’s why we keep having the same four or five musicals going around and around.

“And, of course, in the UK it’s not really easy to put on a musical, although we are partnering with someone this year for Christmas; putting on A Christmas Carol which I’ve invested in, so we are an official associate producer. It’s good to dip my toe in that area.”