Sing For Victory

John Holliday did a very good job in writing this show, With Richmond having a strong military connection, and on the eve of the Somme anniversary it was ideal.

The story was assisted by some Churchill speeches very well placed in the show.  It had all the expected happenings; the men going of to war; the air raid sirens; the children been evacuated; the families going into the air raid shelters with the well known songs all cleverly and well sung in the story.

The first act really told the story whilst the second half was the celebrations of war end and the home comings. One of the stars of the show 'Beth', very played by Natasha Aspen, was saying goodbye to her boy friend 'Toby Milligan', played by Robbie  Moore. They had a sad farewell as he went of to war with Beth concerned for their future despite all her friends and families reassuring her that he would come home safely. Toby's mother 'Margaret' was very well played by Rhoda Fraser. Beth's dad 'Martin' played by Ken Haigh came home from the war reassuring that Toby would get home safely soon.

You can’t have a war without Air raid wardens and Lou Holliday played 'Bert' and Tom Lough played 'Larry', they were ideal  and gave us the song Kiss me goodnight Sgt Major. Their respective wives were 'Olive' played by Laura Morton and 'Maggie'  played by Prudence Nunn, who tried (often unsuccessfuly) to keep their husbands in check.

The other parents were played by Gail Barlow who played 'Edith' with her son 'Simon' played by Alastair Lunn, The role of 'Susan' was played by Berenice Vaucher, Bridie  O’Donnell  played 'Phyllis', Angie Moore played 'Rachel', their children were 'Lucy'  played by Tilly Raper, 'Claire' was played by Alisha Murphy and 'Charlie' was played by Andrew Lunn. They really were in the element snuggled under blankets laid on the floor.

The Headmaster was well played by Brian Martin who got quite involved. The second half was when all the well known songs came out  and  was presented in a music hall style, with everyone sat as though they were in a Theatre and nearly everyone had a song to sing.

We had the homecoming of Toby and reuinion with a delighted Beth. There weren’t many songs  that  we knew that weren’t sang, and the chorus numbers were very well sung indeed. Adrian Bramley played 'Alan' the local vicar and played the piano and accompanied the singing from the stage very well. John Holliday did a first class job in presenting this show and brought back many Memories. Well done Richmond.

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