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MADLY FUNNY: From left, Helga Debbie Walton, Herr Flick Derrick Layton and Rene Dave Moore. Below, Rene with Crabtree Marc Pritchard

'ALLO 'ALLO
Weymouth
Pavilion

by MARION COX

IT takes plenty of courage to reproduce on stage a massively popular television series but Weymouth Drama Club accepted the challenge and, in doing so, has scored a substantial hit.

All the stock characters of the series - and all the stock jokes - are faithfully trotted out as the classic comedy spoof set in wartime France comes alive on stage complete with bizarre props ranging from exploding cheeses to a rubber blow-up Hitler.

As the familiar signature tune starts to play, in comes café owner Rene, marvellously portrayed by Dave Moore, who wrestles with his amorous waitresses, Rachel Turberville-Smith and Nicola Dench, while coping with the ghastly singing endeavours of his wife Edith, a suitably gruesome Anne White. The convoluted plot involving sausages and a painting of a well-endowed Madonna gives ample opportunity for the silly situations, ribald humour and idiotic characters that were the signature of the television series and made it such a world-wide success.

Faithful representations by Antoinette Woolven as Michelle I will say this only once', Marc Pritchard in the role of Good moaning' Crabtree, Deborah Walton as the sex-starved Helga and a brilliant Derrick Leyton-Smith as Otto Flick are just some of the splendidly over-the-top performances by the cast.

Sending up the enemy has always been good for a laugh and few do it better than Bob Mears as the self-regarding Italian officer Bertorelli, Chris Walker as the pompous Nazi Colonel and Darren Richards as the mildly deviant Lieutenant Gruber.

Derrick Sawtell's direction maintains a slick pace that dips a little towards the end of the first act but perks up again when a bevy of Hitler look-alikes arrive after the interval.

With little or nothing in the way of sound equipment to help things along, some lines tended to get lost in the action of the opening performance and one or two of the actors had trouble turning up the volume at times.

But the first night audience enjoyed reliving this much-loved comedy by a large and talented cast who worked so hard to make this show a resounding success.

The production continues for the rest of the week.

9:35am Friday 2nd May 2008

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