Allo Allo

~~Over the years Britain has been very fortunate in having a number of partnerships who have supplies scripts for highly successful comedy series for TV.  Two of the best know were Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft who conceived the original idea for this risqué, tongue-in-cheek long running show.  Due to its popularity it has now been adapted for the stage and it wasn’t surprising to find a very full auditorium.
The ploy is centred around the whereabouts of the process portrait and the imminent visit from Hitler himself.
As I have come to expect Wellingborough Technical Players design team had produced an excellent set encompassing both Rene Artois’ Café and Nazi HQ.  Obviously much thought had been given to the detail of the staging to make it look as authentic as possible.  And during the performance every effort had been made to extract all the comedy inherent in the script.
Paul Darnell made a nicely devious Rene maintaining a good rapport with the audience throughout with Debbie Draycott as his wife, Edith, making the most of her role, positively revelling in her cabaret “performance”.  Rene’s would be loves Yvette and Mimi and Michelle ‘I Shall say this only once’ of the resistance (played by Emma Legg, Jo Little and Anne Chambers) handled their roles well.  The German officers Shaun Johnson (Von Strolum) Martyn Peck (Von Schmelling) Tim Allebone (Herr Flick) Barbara Allebone (Helga) and Stephen Wilson (the ever-hopeful camp Lieut. Gruber) presented good characterisations throughout (as perceived by British comedy writers naturally) and Mick Mills made a good very vocal and ebullient Captain Bertovelli.
The whole play was delivered at a good pace which kept going throughout – a really essential element of comedy!  The background music was well chosen and was really evocative of the period.
Judging by the laughter and applause I think that the audience had very much enjoyed the performance – light-hearted fun!
Thank you to all who took part and also to everyone front of house for the very warm welcome – always much appreciated.  Well done everyone!
 

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