'Allo 'Allo!

Read this very carefully, I shall write it only once!
Those of you who recognised the misquote above were probably fans of the British television comedy series; ‘Allo ‘Allo!

The real catchphrase, “Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once” was one of many to have been spawned by the creators of the World War Two send-up ‘Allo ‘Allo! by Jeremy Lloyd & David Croft. If you are already a fan of the TV show, then it’s more than likely you will love the stage show but for those who are fairly unfamiliar with the series will probably wonder what on earth the fuss was about.

It is quite the rage at the moment for adaptations of popular TV series’ to grace the stage - other popular ones being; ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’, ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’, ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ and ‘Hi-De-Hi’ to mention a few. Given their popularity, I’ve seen a number of screen sitcom to stage revisions and always get the sense that something is not right - preventing the pieces from translating into a substantial piece of theatre. The style of writing (for most of them) are extremely theatrical which naturally lends them to the stage given the characters are already so hammy and farcical, though, the sense that something is missing or not working still creeps in.

My feeling is that the shows are, rightly so, direct imitations of existing work which is what you’d expect with such productions.  However, producing a show in this way erases any input of original creativity which is what excites me as a theatre goer and unfortunately, there is just no scope for that with shows like these. 

As you’d expect, the show is a direct imitation of the hit TV show and for that, the team must be commended on how accurate they have put this production together. The detail and in particular, the characterisations have been studied to an intense degree.  
As for the plot, well, it involves sausages, the painting of The Fallen Madonna (With The Big Boobies) and it’s forgery, many Hitlers (even an inflatable one) and swastika underwear (don’t ask!).

For the most part, Terry Hollinshead’s production for SAM Theatre works. It is fairly pacey and most of the characterisations work, paying total and worthy homage to the originals. He has managed to deal with the multitude of scene changes quite well though more objectives could have been given to his cast to prevent aimless pacing.

Stuart Davies does a good impression of the series actor Gordon Kaye, playing cafe proprietor, René, a highlight for me was certainly the sausage gag. He works well with Jan Taylor as his troll of a wife, Edith. His two waitresses, Angela Kate Cook as Yvette and Emma Birch as Mimi all contribute to the chaos and humour.

For comedy craft, special mentions must go to Jeff Harpin as the Gestapo officer Herr Otto Flick, Michelle Humphreys delivered strong as Michelle and Paul Rendel surprised with his performance as Lieutenant Gruber, a part which I find quite cringe worthy in the TV show.  However, it came across so naturally for Paul! Although I knew it wasn’t accurate, the Scottish twang added an extra layer to the humour for me.

If good, slightly unclean, campy humour is what you crave, then ‘Allo ‘Allo! Is perfect!
This production has done very well for the society, the theatre was full and the laughter was plentiful.

Congratulations SAMT.

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