Hi De Hi

I was delighted to be invited to a Theatre Supper production of Hi-De-Hi presented by HAODS and we were treated to a three-course meal in the Hawaiian Ballroom. This was served by the Maplins Yellow-Coats, which was a nice touch making the audience feel part of the holiday camp from the start. Although the adapted television script felt a bit contrived, the actors were excellent and did a great job of impersonating the much-loved characters.

There were some impressive performances from Gladys Pugh, Peggy Ollerenshaw and Ted Bovis. The whole cast worked very well together taking us back to the heady days of summer holiday camps, and despite the sound gremlins leading to a failure of the music, the cast led by Ted, hilariously ad-libbed their way through an acapella version of You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling. The director had clearly worked with cast on their characterisation and under her direction they developed their styles, accents, and personalities to match those from the show very well. The blocking had been well planned to make effective use of the acting space. 

The production was unfortunately hit by Covid twice during the run which must have been a nightmare for the cast and production team. Luckily three actors stepped into the roles, learning their lines and blocking in a day and you wouldn’t have known that these three had not had the parts from the beginning. Well, done to all.

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