Paul Carpenter and Ian Gower
Directed by Fiona Bartlett
The play started with a video projection of a coach on the last few yards of its journey, arriving at Maplins gates. As the screen went dark, Gladys Pugh arrived in the Radio Maplin desk, Ding-ding-dong “Good morning campers, here are a few safety announcements”. With this, the yellow coats filed on stage and went through the action sequences while Gladys told everyone about fire exits, switching off phones, and no photography– a nice light hearted touch, then the show started.
The set was divided in two with a virtual wall. There was a doorway in between the two halves. These represented the staffroom and Jeffery Fairbrother’s office. The two halves of the stage changed as the play progressed, becoming staff chalets, ballroom and bar and other areas. This was very cleverly designed.
Once the play started we were in for a real nostalgic treat. Most of the cast were instantly recognised as characters from the TV comedy series through looks, body language or movement. The sound wasn’t that clear as the show started, but put itself right before long.
The cast were all very good although Gladys (Sue Finn) did occasionally travel from the Welsh valleys to Birmingham a few times while she was speaking, but it didn’t detract from her performance one bit. Her actions were spot on and had the facial expressions off to a tee, and she even hit the right notes on the xylophone. Laurie Noble excellently portrayed Ted Bovis with his money making schemes and loud check suit. He was on the mark all the way through and could be heard from the very start.
Spike (Tony Johnson) was one of just two members of the cast that wasn’t like the TV character at all. It took a bit of time to get used to him. It wasn’t Tony’s fault, but the fact that we all get used to certain characters in our viewing life. That doesn’t mean he was no good – on the contrary, he played the part very well indeed. He carried his role with conviction. I bet Johnson was happy there was no involvement with a swimming pool in the show; otherwise he would have spent most of the show getting a good dousing like the character in the TV version. John Blackwell played the other character that seemed out of place to us that grew up with the TV version. Again not his fault, but we live with these characters in our minds. In spite of this, Blackwell took the role of Jeffery Fairbrother to his heart and was brilliant in the part. You could see the apprehension in his eyes whenever Gladys came on to him. His body language was spot-on, as was his way with words.
Toby Hazan was the dead spit of Barry Howard who played Barry Stewart-Hargreaves in the series. He must have spent countless hours watching re-runs and videos of the show that you could be forgiven for thinking the original Barry was in the show. He minced and acted the part beautifully; even his voice was close to the original. He was fantastic and we, the audience, thoroughly enjoyed his little spates with his wife and dancing partner Yvonne. Lesly Liggett, as Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves was the perfect foil to Hazan. Both Liggett and Hazan were wonderful in their roles, but when they were together, they were magic. I could have quite happily spent the whole evening just watching them bitching to each other.
Mr Partridge the miserable children’s entertainer was excellently portrayed by Alan Bartlett, who was constantly mumbling and grumbling under his breath. Although I enjoyed his performance, he was very difficult to hear even at the best of times when he was speaking normally, and when he was mumbling and grumbling, the audience couldn’t hear any of it clear enough to understand what he was saying, which made it an almost completely wasted exercise.
Fred Quilley the riding instructor (Larry Collins) was there because he was in the TV series, but it wasn’t a substantial part in the play. However, Collins played it to the best of his ability, but it was a part that was never going to get the critics raving.
Peggy Ollerenshaw, the chambermaid and cleaner, was excellently played by Cathi Ward. The poor girl had always set her hopes on being a yellow coat and did all she could to become one, but it never happened, Ahhhh. Ward had Peggy off to a tee and was brilliant at bringing her to the stage so she instantly became the character everyone knew and loved.
The rest of the Yellowcoats all played their parts beautifully as did the other characters that made fleeting appearances throughout, with the exception of one person playing two characters – he mumbled and spoke with such a low volume that not one of his words could be heard, so I don’t know if he made any difference to the story or not. The show had a great set and well thought out – very well designed by Laurie Noble. The lighting (Vicky Fox) was good, although during one scene the light was on one half the set although the action was taking part in the other half. I am assuming that this was just a slight glitch.
The visual effects such as the coach ride in were excellent. The programme doesn’t mention who conceived or ran them, so I have no idea who to congratulate, but congratulations are in order.
The sound (Martin Stevens) might have been a bit iffy, but I have a feeling that it was the fault of certain actors, that I couldn’t quite hear everything.
Clothing was spot on for the period and the camp. Well done Fiona Bartlett, Maggie Knighton and their team. Props (Bob Tobin and Liz Lines) were all good with the exception of the modern mugs in the entertainment office. Sorry about that, but I have a big thing about props being correct for the period. But apart from that little thing, they were all very good and summed up the period well.
Director Fiona Bartlett certainly knew what was wanted of this production and she achieved it with flying colours. Brilliant.
This was a very entertaining show and well done to all taking part. I always love my little jaunts down to the island to watch a HIADS show – they certainly know how to entertain.
Bob Heather
Theatre reviewer