'Allo. 'Allo

A good and atmospheric set to give good backing and flavour for the production; as always with this play the many sequences do tend to slow the action but that is the nature of the piece. Sound and light added to atmosphere. Very well costumed throughout with attention to details and suitability for the different characters.

David Rees is Rene Artois! Another reprise of his special performance in the role and his timing just gets better, excellent interactions with all of the cast in this pivotal and central role in this play, one cannot say more as this is a speciality act.

As Edith, Lavinia Pirret was terrible in her singing and excellent in her character study as desired, played well to Rene and the other participants in the café, her cabaret was as bad as should be. The two waitresses Katherine Evans and Samantha Elmhurst looked good in their black stockings and short skirts, playing up to Rene and all the visiting officers. Carmel Hannant as Michelle swept in to the café to create some chaos with speedy delivery and swept out into night. A good duo playing well against each other for the laughs, Nick Bird in black feathers as Captn Bertorelli with accent and comedy timing, plus Martyn Rolfe with wiglet as Col von Strohm gave good account of themselves in office and café scenes. The scenes including Julie Hewitt as Helga and Trevor Burton as H.Flick were so crisp and perfect in their interplay and diction and timing, excellent. Jim Howard convincing as the bungling and word misuser Officer Crabtree causing problems. And popping up in unexpected places and with the parrot, a good characterisation of Le Clerc from Alistair Gray. Mark Wells was impossible in his embarrassment of Rene in his role of Lt Gruber, and Alex Gale very overpowering as Gen von Schmelling.  The two Airman played by students Kieran Shooter and Finn Richardson-Gunn were very clear with their projection and diction, and the other students playing peasants gained experience in being onstage with this cast in a classic play.

This is indeed a classic play now and we all know the plot and the characters and how many laughs there are in dialogue and situations, and certainly we were definitely not disappointed in this production with this experienced casting, we all went home aching from the laughter which is what should happen.

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