Blackadder

Blackadder is an absolute classic and as a fan of the TV show I was very much looking forward to St Neots Players’ production - and to see how it had been adapted for the stage. It appears that nothing has changed, according to director Ian Francis’ notes in the programme. He chose his favourite three of the original twenty four episodes and took it from there to create the three act play.

As the show was about to start the voice of Queenie warned us to turn off our mobiles or suffer the consequences. The familiar theme from Blackadder began and the audience waited in anticipation to see the much loved characters appear. We were not disappointed. St Neots Players gave us a starkly simple but effective set, very good costumes and all the classic comedy we had hoped for, which certainly had the audience laughing out loud for much of the time. Mission accomplished - however, all the audience laughter made it rather difficult to hear the actors. There are two issues here: firstly, not using mics means that projection is vitally important (especially if an actor is facing upstage on the odd occasion!) and secondly, actors must wait for the laughter to die down before continuing - otherwise the noise from the audience drowns out the performers. Alongside this I have to mention diction, which often needed to be slower and more clear, rather than rushed.

That said, every single member of the cast did a wonderful impression of their character. Each actor sounded very much like their character from the TV show, which was a pleasant surprise and not an easy feat, with such familiar and well loved characters. A special mention to Queenie, played by Stephanie Pittam and Baldrick, Simon Ockenden, who were both excellent in their roles and characterisation was superb here.

Geoff Unwin as Blackadder and Ian Worsfold as Lord Percy were superb and had a great relationship on stage. Drunk Edmund in Act 2 was brilliant! Richard Fitt made a lovely Lord Melchett ( I would have liked a few more ‘Baa’s to really instill the character)  and Sylvie Townsend as Nursie was just sublime and exactly as we would have wanted her to be. Jenny Coates gave us a great Kate/Bob, and Jenny Luckett as the young crone alongside Lynda Collins as the wise woman were both suitably mad! Jon Hewitt played Lord Whiteadder, the guard and Kate’s father - I particularly liked the addition of his line about turning up to the wedding, on what was Royal Wedding day - a lovely little quip! 

Keith Popely played the roles of Dr Leech, Freddie Frobisher and Ludwig the Indestructible, doing each one brilliantly and seemingly having a plethora of accents at his disposal. Brett Nun gave us his Lord Flasheart, along with Sir Geoffrey Piddle and another comedy guard. Tom Kirkbride played the roles of Simon Partridge and the torturor and Louisa Hewitt was the straight-laced Lady Whiteadder.

All of the performers for me did a great job of truly becoming their character. The costumes, the mannerisms and and the vocal dexterity, all helped to transport us to the familiar world of Series 2. However, for the most part, everyone needed to be louder and sometimes it felt like I was simply watching the TV series. Not a bad thing, except that on stage everything has to be acted out more. Without a camera right in front of you, the expressions need to be bigger, the vocals need to be bigger, the acting needs to be bigger - and for me everyone could have, essentially, hammed up their character a little more, to really squeeze every last bit of comedy out of them. The script for Blackadder is an absolute gift and really worked on the audience, including myself, but at times I did feel there was still a little more to give. 

So - the cast were great. The crew did not get a mention in the programme, so I am unable to credit people personally, except to say that costumes were excellent, the lighting was good, as were the sound effects and the theme tune for the musical interludes. And now on to those interludes. Unfortunately there were many (perhaps this comes with using a script adapted form a TV series) and each one seemed to last too long and therefore sucked the energy out of the room completely. As each short scene ended, we cut to blackout, silence (sometimes music) and we waited for the lights to come up on the next scene. Very often it was a simple change of character on the stage, a truck to turn round or a bit of movement, but each transition simply took too long and we were left waiting in the darkness for something to happen. When a scene is on a roll and the audience is laughing along, these transitions killed the mood and took us right back to square one, where the cast had to get us all going again. This was such a shame as the cast were all doing a sterling job but had to then work twice as hard to keep the momentum going and build the atmosphere up again.

Ably directed by Ian Francis, this production was thoroughly entertaining with just a little room for improvement from the technical side of things. It was evidently clear that the audience certainly enjoyed themselves and that included myself - and my husband, who can quote every episode of Blackadder and loved the show. 

So, how could what was a good show be made great next time? 

“My Lord, I have a cunning plan …………..”

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