Blackadder Goes Forth

A very nice touch to have the King’s Lynn Town Band on stage to musically introduce the three episodes. The set  was clever and quite complex, definitely setting off the action in an appropriate way with good lighting and effects.   The costumes and props etc from the Muckleburgh Collection in North Norfolk all combined to give extremely good atmosphere and feel for the piece.

 I must particularly congratulate Ross Woodhouse as Flashheart the Flyer in ‘Private Plane’, his big personality and huge presence embodied the ‘gung-ho’ attitude, the looks and style to be the heartthrob as required, and his interaction with the ‘army types’ impressive.
As Blackadder, Adam Tucker had the acting expertise seen in previous productions, very professional in approach and delivery and characterisation.   He worked well with other members of his team in the bunker, certainly the humour capitalised on with the hapless and excellent Baldrick from Josh Chilvers (very mobile and very dirty) and with his ‘cunning plans’.  There was an excellent contrast between him and the public school type, the Honourable George played by Thomas Whybrow with his naïve enthusiasm for everything.   Thomas is a new member for KLP and a very welcome addition to the company, I hope he continues.. This threesome were very strong, they interacted well and emphasised the mix of survival, camaraderie and humour with the loss of friends and the tragedy of war.

A larger than life portrayal of General Melchett from John Giller, definitely in very much in command and suffering no nonsense, but certainly retaining his survival opportunities, an excellent almost OTT character to relish in performance. And in the office and trench, beleaguered from several directions and seemingly losing out,Tobias Fysh drew comedy and timing in excellent fashion as Captain Darling.

The three extracts: ‘Private Plane’, ‘General Hospital’, ‘Goodbyee’ gave a well- balanced programme for Blackadder and Tom Watson extracted so much from scripts and characters, and all seemed to be enjoying their appearances. Smaller roles were well realised, especially Nurse Mary from Helen Miles in the hospital sequence, funny as were so many scenes. This production was proper teamwork from all involved.

The ‘over the top’ finale was most innovative, using entrances from from the audience; with the noise, atmospheric lighting and pyrotechnic effects, overwhelming.  It all served to bring home the horrors experienced at the front. And the clever contrast to the ‘slide show’ of the winner (General with cream cakes) and the many losers (the rest of cast) in sepia prints which reminded us of the opening sequence before the action began: most imaginative and thought provoking regarding the loss of life in this remembrance centenary.

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