'Allo 'Allo 2 The Camembert Caper

It was lovely to see a good number of people in the audience, and as we settled in, I was admiring the set.    Built entirely by members of the company, it was impressive, even more so when the scene changes happened.  These were accomplished smoothly and with very little reduction in the pace of the play, the ingenious construction was appreciated.

This is an iconic genre, and the Players have some extremely experienced and talented cast members who created the characters beautifully.  Ian Benson, reprising his role as Rene was terrific, he is a very strong performer and has the ability to ad lib appropriately, which added to the comedy. Josh Handley, playing Lieutenant Gruber, was a delight.  Josh has an amazing ability to become the characters he plays whilst always giving a true comedy performance.  I never tire of watching his performances.

There are a lot of male characters in this play and in the current circumstances, Thurrock Courts Players did well to get so many talented male performers.  They all embraced their parts with enthusiasm and gave strong performances.  Listing them all would take up most of the allocated space I have in this report, but I appreciated everyone’s characterisations.

Christina Ashford reprised her role as Rene’s wife Edith, an excellent performance but I would have liked her to project a little more as I struggled to hear some of her dialogue.  Even though an actor is mic’d, they do need to project to enable the mic to pick up the actual dialogue.  It’s lovely to see the nuances being acted out but not helpful if we can’t actually hear what was being said. This comment also applies to a couple of the other ladies performing and was one that I overheard from other members of the audience in the interval.  Other strong performances came from Lauren Jones (Yvette) Torie Grayling (Michelle) and a very short but impactful performance by Dawn Peat as Edith’s mother.

The costumes were supplied by a company who specialise in the ‘Allo ‘Allo plays and were very good, the ladies’ hair/wigs were, in the main good.  Although I think Madame Edith’s wig was a bit troublesome for her.

Lighting and sound were about right, I spoke to the technician on sound about the volume and, quite rightly, he explained that it was difficult to get good sound when some actors did not project, echoing the comments from some members of the audience and my own thoughts.

Overall, despite the well-rehearsed and effective scene changes, the pace of the play felt a bit slow, and I am not sure that the script was as effective as the first ‘Allo ‘Allo.

However, we had a very enjoyable evening and were, as always, made to feel welcome by Vic Gray and the Front of house team.

Thank you, Thurrock Courts Players, it is always a pleasure to visit.

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