Dad's Army

As usual I went to Harleston Players Dad’s Army and received the warmest welcome from the front of house team, giving immediately a convivial ethos for the audience to feel a part of the whole performance. I think this creates an essential ingredient for enjoyment when you visit the theatre and I thank you Harleston Players for this.

The play ‘Dad’s Army’ puts together 4 outstanding scripts of the original television series and these lead to, not only conjure up memories of iconic scenes but need to join together and the players worked hard, in places to do this.

To mention any individual in this incredibly talented cast would take time and many superlatives so I hasten to say ‘each person’ lit up the stage and established well-acted personifications of these well known roles. They each had good comedy timings, in fact they were very funny. Their acting skills extended to being in character, even when not speaking.  A team that worked together. Their diction was clear at all times, enabling the audience to follow every detail, however small, of the original episodes.

The direction and production team assembled the show cleverly, using the available space impressively to portay this at it’s best. It was an open stage with props and furniture appropriate to the war era, and extras constructed to give even more meaning to the action. I liked the door to the office and how it was efficiently used with the storyline, a shrewd use of the space.

The lighting enhanced the scenes adequately and the sound was delivered so that the audience could hear every word. I would like to mention that the singing of the choir in the ‘floral dance’ totally encaptured the style of a village choir to perfection.

The standard WW2 costumes including the uniformed soldiers and civilians were to a good standard and obviously resourced from knowledge of the 40’s dress code and there were some quick changes that were executed well.

The characterisations even extended to the bows. The witty scene changes with ‘the lady’ with the card were great and the ceiling falling down was fitting, all these very entertaining. I enjoyed the scene change of bringing on the Morris dancers practising the dance instead of the blackouts and felt that mabe this idea appropriate to the scene could have been used on other blackout times. The use of the telephone and the side stage lit to give distance and reality was a lovely touch. Hairstyles of the era are important to costume, so please be aware of the ladies styles with long hair and as the plot covered different days, ladies maybe need a change to keep the believability of passing time.

A truely engaging performance portraying a classic. A delightful afternoon. Harleston Players and Dad’s Army congratulations to everyone involved. Thank you.

                   

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.