The review from NODA regarding Hi-De-Hi has been received and i encose below. Well done once again to everyone involved. THE ANGLIAN PLAYERS Hi-de-Hi! DIRECTOR Ali Fox VENUE March Community Centre DATE May 15th 2014 My last outing to an Anglian Players production had been at the March Town Hall where I had been privileged to be part of the audience for an original piece called ‘Reality Checked, Back to Reality’. This time it was back to the Community Centre for Paul Carpenter and Ian Gower’s Hi-de-Hi, adapted from the popular television series of Jimmy Perry and David Croft. I noted from the programme it was a first directorial outing for one of the Society’s leading actresses Ali Fox and that always makes things a bit more exciting. I was also very impressed with a well-conceived and beautifully constructed multi-level set which looked amazing and really helped move things along without endless curtain-pulling. Costumes were totally appropriate and make up, lighting and sound all slick and efficient. Of the supporting cast there was a good showing from Charlie Boden as Mr Pritchard and the Bailiff; Elaine Hooks as Tracy Brentwood; Becki Morphus as Betty Whistler; Jackie Nosworthy as Sylvia Garnsey and a nice piece of character acting from Mike Thomas as slightly tragic Punch and Judy man, Mr Partridge. Chris Carter was pleasingly confident as Stable Keeper, Fred Quilly with solid perfomances from Chris Jarvis and Shaun Chambers as Camp Comic and Host, Spike Dixon and Ted Bovis with Mr Chambers perhaps just lacking a bit of the charisma generally associated with the Ted Bovis character. Cassie Heighton worked hard as aspirational Yellowcoat, Peggy Ollerenshaw and the exceptionally talented Wendy Hart almost managed to steal the show with a magnificent cameo as Ted’s estranged wife, Hilary. I enjoyed enormously the relationship between Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves who were very watchable as the slightly devious and enormously middle class ballroom aficionado’s played with some style by Laura Andrews and Phil Wing. With the weight of more than a third of the total dialogue and most of the plot on his shoulders Alan Hooks was on top form as bewildered Entertainments Manager, Jeffrey Fairbrother, with an excellent comic touch and a characterisation that was part impression and part tribute that worked very well indeed. Penultimate paragraph honours must go to astonishing Nicky Marsh as officious senior Yellowcoat, Gladys Pugh, who simply devoured every piece of dialogue and matched it with perfect facial expressions that yielded as many laughs as her lines. Her timing was flawless along with her Welsh accent and the way she used her body to work the part was masterful. There was much you could attribute to the television character but so strong was this perfomances, at the end, I couldn’t really remember Ruth Madoc at all. Aside from the various perfomances there were highs and lows in this production. The high, a superb piece of direction that could not be faulted, knee-deep in vision and innovation. Everything Mrs Fox threw at this (and there was plenty) seemed to work and went a long way to wiping away the memory of the low, which was the script. Simply woeful! I struggled throughout to find very much written humour, combined with a storyline that was paper thin. Only in a couple of moments of pathos did the dialogue really grip me and considering this, the cast did a fine job to get out of it what they did. If this point needed driving home any further I would simply observe that some of the best dialogue and biggest laughs came from the interval raffle. Well done Ali Fox, and well done Anglian Players but please pick your next production carefully… you may not have Mrs Marsh to save the day next time! Stephen P E Hayter (Regional Representative – NODA Eastern Region Area 4 North)
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 08:05:20 +0000
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