Allo Allo

As we entered the theatre, there was background noise which I finally worked out was a busy café. It wasn’t immediately obvious but, given that this was an almost full house, it had to contend with the live audience.

Then the well-known signature tune started, and we settled in for an evening’s entertainment. The set was excellent, although we had a slightly restricted view as our seats were on the extreme left and near the front. I cannot complain though as they were the seats that I had requested!

Ian Benson entered as Rene Artois, an excellent casting, Ian’s characterisation was excellent from the start, and he maintained it throughout the play. The script is a dream for any actor, but this still needs to be interpreted well and Ian was outstanding in the part. He had to step out of the play and talk to the audience at various times and he did this smoothly and to great effect.

Most of us will be familiar with the running back ground story and with Rene’s romantic involvement with both his waitresses to the complete ignorance of his wife Edith. Played by Christina Ashford, Edith sang off key to perfection and that is not easy to do. Another great performance which moved the play along well.  

The two waitresses, Yvette (Lauren Jones) and Mimi (Cody Gray) gave strong performances, with very contrasting characters. Harry Doyles performance as M. Leclerc was classic, an excellent cameo. Torie Grayling (Michelle Dubois) completed the French characters with an excellent performance as the Resistance Leader. Martyn Williams played officer Crabtree and his contorted French was excellent. I also liked the character as he portrayed it, different from the original TV character but, nonetheless, excellent.

The German characters were, in the main, very good, one or two accents slipped a bit during the performance, but this was the first night and it wasn’t too obvious. Luke Coldham was a stand out as Lieutenant Gruber, his characterisations are always terrific and this was no exception, both his dialogue (very well delivered) and his body language demonstrated his skill as an actor. Josh Handley (Herr Flick) was another strong performer, maintaining his character’s dialogue and body language throughout. Josh has natural comedy and he demonstrated that to perfection, I loved the tango! The other Germans were played by Jim Wilkinson (Gen Von Strohm) Michael Southgate (Capt. Bertorelli) not technically German but on their ‘side’. Wayne Prince (General Von Schmelling) and Ann-Marie Patterson (Helga). The remainder of the cast supported the action well.

Technically there were a couple of occasions when a mic wasn’t turned up on time but, again, this was the first performance. There were a few blackouts which did slow the pace down a bit, but when the script is a series of, not always, related incidents it is difficult to see how they could have been avoided. Costumes were hired from a company who specialise in providing costumes for this play, so they were, of course, good. Cody Gray is credited for the wigs, which were excellent.

The audience were laughing from start to finish and this is a testimony to the company and their performances. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Café Artois, thank you.

 

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