At Your Service

The British birthright brings with it a love of bland food and sugary sweets, twee Scottish pop outfits, frothy beer, gory serial killer dramas and tacky Brit-coms. And no Brit-com is tackier than the gloriously politically incorrect Are You Being Served?, a celebration of double entendre, lewdness and general lascivious behavior. The 1970s department store comedy feted workplace sexual harassment on a weekly basis, as 34D-endowed salesgirls were treated to leering by their male counterparts, matronly women were subjected to comments on the deterioration of their sexuality, and gay salesmen were targeted with any number of cringe-inducing comments about any number of things. As a small child and even a fairly naïve teenager, most of the double entendre flew straight over my head, but as an adult, I find it hilariously inappropriate, wrong on most every level and funnier than most modern situation comedies. Comedy fans and Anglophiles alike will be thrilled as Mrs. Slocum, Miss Brahms and Captain Peacock come to life in all their filthy glory when the Garland Civic Theatre presents a stage adaptation of the seminal comedy. The play runs Thursdays through Sundays through March 29 at the Granville Community Theatre, 300 N. Fifth St. Tickets cost $16 to $20, and showtimes can be found online at garlandcivictheatre.org.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: March 6. Continues through March 29, 2008