Allo Allo 2

Allo Allo brings back many happy memories for me, the original television show was a staple part of my family’s weekend viewing and so I am thrilled it has successfully been adapted for the stage. With it’s hilarious dialogue and ridiculous capers (in this case of the cheese variety) it is impossible not to fall in love with the colourful characters created by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft.

As is always the case with this society my guest and I were warmly welcomed by the excellent front of house team. Special thanks to Linda for looking after us. There is such a lovely feeling of community at Maldon Drama and I was delighted to see a huge audience in situ, including many members from other Drama groups.

This is a relatively large cast so please forgive me for not being able to mention everyone. But I would like to start by saying that everyone on stage suited their role well – this was a very well cast production. With the characters being so familiar to an audience it was fantastic to see how Director Martin Adams had been able to find Actors that in almost every case visually resembled those from the TV show. I admit to doing a double take when Scott Peters made his entrance as Herr Flick!

Leading the way of course was Rene - Cafe owner with a penchant for his young waitresses and somewhat narrator of the piece. Alan Ireland did a good job in this role, while somewhat lacking in a French accent he handled a huge amount of dialogue well and connected nicely with the audience when needed. He was well matched by his long suffering wife Edith, played by Helen Rasmussen. Both looked the part too.

There were some excellent French accents on display from some of the ladies, in particular Ghislaine Davis (Yvette), Nikita Eve (Mimi) and Michelle Edgington (Michelle). All were able to maintain them throughout the production so very well done. I particularly enjoyed Viki Hayman as Monsieur Leclerk with some great comic timing. Equally impressive, Heather Sims made a suitably frisky Helga and I loved her partnership with Scott Peter’s Herr Flick. Another notable performance came from Dan Perring as General Von Klinkerhoffen who had a good command of the stage and worked the audience well. As previously stated I cannot mention everyone individually but was impressed by all the performers on stage. Highlights included Edith’s “song”, the hilarious can can dance and the scene in the Generals’ quarters complete with very patriotic boxer shorts!

The set looked really well made with a clever counter for the cafe that could be turned and added to with other elements to make the bed. Tables and chairs were added for the cafe and flags, strings of onions, camembert boxes etc were all part of the well thought out prop list. A projection at the back added to the visuals. There are a lot of scene changes in this Play and I did wonder how they could have been sped up slightly. Lots of black outs do slow the pace down somewhat although suitable covering music was added. I felt that the sheet used to cover the counter wasn’t necessary as it was then covered by a large flag anyway. The changes from the cafe to the General’s office or Madame Fanny’s bedroom were slower than I would have liked, although I appreciated the attention to detail and the efforts of the cast and crew in creating the overall look.

Costumes were good and suited each character well. The only exception being the lack of leather coat for Herr Flick, particularly as it is referenced in the dialogue. Hairstyles were excellent and exactly of the period. I was also impressed by the superb timing of the sound effects throughout. The tech team really were on the ball here! Lighting was also good and well timed and the standing mics in front of the stage created the right level of volume so that each persons dialogue could easily be heard.

Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and Director Martin Addams, assisted by Gill Peregrine should be congratulated on creating an authentic version of this much loved piece. Along with the rest of the audience I laughed at all the familiar jokes and was taken on a wonderful trip down memory lane.

Thank you to every single person involved. I am so pleased you have had such full houses and look forward to seeing this fantastic group continue to go from strength to strength.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.