Frankie

Frankie – Blakeney Players

Blakeney Village Hall

Written and Directed by Peter Franklin

Choreography Jane Temple and Michelle Cobbett

It is always a good sign when you begin smiling and laughing before the curtain has even opened. This is what happened at Blakeney last night with the amusing names in the programme.

A very quick synopsis – An all male dance troupe are taking part in the Glitter Ball Dance competition. Meanwhile in a castle Frankie Stein meets the Addams family and tells his fathers laboratory assistants that he wants to enter the glitter ball dance contest.   Two brain transplants a glowing heart and they all live happily ever after.   What could be simpler.

This is the recipe for another “off the wall” but very funny and very well presented Blakeney show. Writer and director (Peter Franklin) knows his company and the lengths they are prepared to go to to just ensure that a good evening is had by all. In a packed village hall we laughed, clapped, cheered and booed our way through this simple tale. The band being their usual supportive but never intrusive selves giving us a very varied selection of music. The scenery well painted and colourful with some cleverly made props enhanced the overall spectacle.

In the lead was newcomer Finlay Newton who, in his massive ski boots, towered above the rest of the cast and gave a performance that had the audience on his side from the very start. Alongside him and an essential part of his creation was his daddy Alphonse Stein who with his mid European, Transylvanian I think, accent controlled with an assured stage presence all of his creations and inventions. The team of unlikely male dancers (Dave Buckey, Martyn Scott, Tim Williamson and Roger Combe) displayed some stereotypical character traits as they continued to hone their routine to win the elusive glitter ball trophy under the direction of Quentin (Grahan Colombe) and dance teacher Carrie (Fen Harrison). At the Frankenstein castle there is a “Me and My Girl” moment happening, as all the ancestral portraits come to life and when you have six experienced players at your disposal it would be wrong not to use them as much as possible. They proved their versatility by becoming scene change cover with some hilarious “groaner” cracker jokes and because they could only be seen by certain people contributed to many of the scenes. Also at the castle we meet the laboratory assistants (Jane Stewart, Isobel Duncan, Harriet Duncan, Jane Temple, Jess Daynes and Michelle Cobbett) who just happened to be very good dancers tap, modern or Greek traditional all of which they tackled with equal aplomb whilst singing and acting as well. Swelter the Castle chef (Alison Mawson) who must have had her training in a roadkill café gave a convincing and strong performance and managed to come up with several disgusting recipes for any occasion required. It is also at this point that we meet Gomez (Mike O’Kane) and Morticia (Jennie Blowers) this sickeningly lovey dovey pair gave us some good comedy moments as they smoozed through the show. One of the surprises, appearing from beneath a very large silver cloche, was the font of all knowledge Thing (Ralph Wiggins) This was a no acting below the neck part and it was handled beautifully by a very competent actor.

The nasty in the show turns out to be a young lady, Martha Hari (Sam Duncan) who is in league with the Walsingham Waltzers, the opposing dance group. She drifted into the scenes without being noticed. But when she swapped the motherboard in Frankie's brain, she was spotted and booed off the stage by the audience. Until then she was one of the most pleasant villains you could ever meet, but after receiving a bang on the head from Frankie’s tennis racket she has the chance to show her true character.

Many of the Ancestors doubled up as several other characters and this took us to “Strictly Come Dancing” type final which ended in the whole company dancing the new Frankie style dance in their ski boots. Never before seen, at least by me.

Any society relies on a kind of unity and Blakeney has it in buckets, no bought or hired scenery, homemade costumes and ingenious “handmade” props, everything is made by the company. Even the seats are set out by the cast prior to the show.

This is a company show and I for one had a really entertaining evening.

Well done Blakeney

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