'Allo 'Allo

A production of ‘Allo ‘Allo! is going to be a serious challenge to any director 
because it is so difficult to emulate such well defined and iconic characters as those that appeared in the television series of the same name. The star of the show was undoubtedly Richard Leivers as Rene the French cafe owner, who coped effortlessly with this large role. His comic timing, his interaction with all fellow actors and with the audience was superb. The tillilating scenes with Elaine Brown as Yvettte and Natasha Richardson as Mimi and his intolerant, sarcastic attitude towards Edith, his long suffering wife admirably portrayed by Dot Clarke, were definite crowd pleases. Shelley Coe and David Brown as Helga and Herr Flick proved a very successful pairing, in particular Helga’s striptease and Herr Flick’s outrageous transformation to a ‘lady’ ice cream seller were sights to behold! Darren Kimberley ‘camped it up’ as Lieut. Gruber and his superior officer, Col. Kurt Von Strohm was splendidly played by Ray Hall. Andrew Moore was hilarious as Captain Bertorelli and must be congratulated, not only for his performance, but for putting into action the saying “the show must go on”! Ian Jones gave a first class performance as Officer Crabtree a British agent disguised as a French policeman, his mispronunciations were a delight. Lisa Poole coped well with the role of Michelle, leader of the French resistance, Ben Gilbert gave good support as Gen.Von Schmelling and Bryan Glitheroe was very funny as Leclerc in his various zany disguises. I loved the unexpected ‘pop-up’ of the British Airmen played by Connor Hicks and Mark MacDougall and the exploits surrounding the ‘cockatoo microphone’ were priceless as were the appearances of several Hitlers including the antics surrounding an inflatable version! All in all a valiant undertaking was made by the whole company to recreate this well scripted transference of a much loved TV series, to the stage.

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