Hi-de-Hi

Mawdesley Amateur Dramatics Society’s production of the comedy Hi-de-Hi by Ian Gower is based on the television programme of the same name which was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. The play was very nostalgic taking me back to the hay day of those well loved very funny television comedies of the past from Perry and Croft. This entertaining production was directed by Debbie Wells who had at her disposal a number of good character actors who had the task of bringing to the stage some of the most well known comedy characters ever seen on British television a feat which I appreciate must have been quite daunting. The cast list was quite large for a play and it included all the characters we would expect to see from the original show, they all worked well together with lots of energy and enthusiasm and also appeared to be enjoying themselves very much.Although all the cast worked hard as a team producing some lovely characterizations there were three excellent performances I would like to mention, these included Sam Quinn as Gladys Pugh who not only managed to replicate Gladys’s look but her accent was spot on and sounded very much like the original as she had just the right intonation in her voice. Adrian Barradell was a very worthy Jeffrey Fairbrother the camp entertainment manager, he made a very good job of being serious minded and a little confused at times and Bridgett Welch hit the nail on the head with her wonderful characterisation of the ditsy gregarious Peggy Ollerenshaw, Bridgett was also able to include some of herself in the part which gave her performance a new dimension meaning it was not just a caricature of Sue Pollard’s Peggy.  Generally diction and clarity of words from the cast was very good meaning the audience could follow the plot easily although I did feel the action and pace of the play was a little slow on a number of occasions which meant some of the comedy was lost. But having said that there was plenty of laughter from the audience who appeared to enjoy themselves immensely which is one of the objectives for any performance on stage

There was a split set, which was well dressed by props and used to good effect with excellent use of the stage area, which along with good sound and lighting resulted in the actors having a very good platform to work on. Costumes were colourful and the yellow coats looked authentic and along with the set enhanced the production, well done to all the accomplished backstage crew.

Congratulations to Director Debbie Wells and everyone involved in this production we had a very enjoyable evening’s entertainment. Thank you for inviting us hope to see you for your next production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.