Allo Allo

“ Allo Allo” was a very popular 1980’s Television sitcom series, written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft which is a parody of another popular 1970’s B.B.C. Drama  series called “ Secret Army” about the French resistance in World War II. There have been a number of attempts to transfer well known sitcoms of the past to the stage with varying  degrees of success,  however with this script  the transfer has worked very well as there are all the usual hallmarks of the T V show with the inclusion of all the characters’ we know and love as well as the Iconic catchphrases used by these characters in the series.

This enjoyable comedic production by the Ormskirk Theatre Company directed by Paul Falcone did the script justice with the audience involved in the action from the beginning of the play

It is probably inevitable that characters in the play will be compared with those from the T. V. show, but Gary Simpson never disappoints with any of his performances and was outstanding in the central and important role of Rene, holding the play together and he had the audience with him at all times. Patricia Baker as Rene’s wife Edith complemented Gary nicely and managed to sing off key very well, her “cabaret” number was one of the highlights of the evening with the help of Kelly Fisher as Yvette and Lisa O’Reilly as Mimi who both produced spot on characterisations. Chris Smalley was very funny as Officer Crabtree managing the very comedic pronunciation of his libretto excellently and Simon James as Lieutenant Hubert Gruber was spot on with his accent and characterisation. This was a very large cast and I would love to be able to mention everyone else as they all worked together well which is very important for this script to work and they all appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely. I must mention it was lovely to see Andy Hawkes involved in the production even though it was on film. Diction was clear, and the pace was good but just a constructive comment if an accent is being used it must be maintained throughout the production, as there were occasions when local accents could be heard from some of the actors and accents are very important in this play.

There was excellent use of the playing area, no easy task because of the venues limited stage area with a well- dressed set depicting Rene’s Café and two smaller sets to each side, used for scenes not set in the café, one had a screen used for projecting pictures applicable to the setting of the scene, also the number of props used must have created a great deal of work. Costumes, looked authentic to the era and added to the visual impact of the show. 

Congratulations to Paul Falcone and everyone involved in bringing this very comedic enjoyable production to the stage including all backstage technical and front of house crew.Thank you very much for inviting us we had a lovely evening.

 

 

 

 

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