Review

Review of ‘Allo ‘Allo presented by the Rangiora Players

Reviewer Dale Hartley-Brown

“Listen very closely, I shall say this only once!” The Rangiora Players latest production, ‘Allo ‘Allo, will be well worth a look this week at the Rangiora Town Hall.

After a day of snow, freezing temperatures and power outages, the cast of ‘Allo ‘Allo provided us with a warm and inviting performance of wartime comedy. Complete with an inventive amount of jokes about sausages, two naughty waitresses, a bedroom scene as well as the back row of the movies, not to mention a gay German Lieutenant getting mixed messages from a fake parrot, what more can we ask for on a cold winter’s night?

Dimitri Gabara has instructed the cast of 19 actors through a complex and demanding script exceptionally well. Stand out performances came from Edward O’Brien as the long suffering Rene, whose immense amount of dialogue and comic business flowed smoothly and Lynne James as Rene’s wife, Edith, who portrayed this overly dramatic and tone deaf role remarkably well for someone who can actually sing very well!

Others of note were Kerianne McLaughlin as the sexy Helga, Peter Edwards as the sleazy Italian Captain Bertorelli and Dave Sanderson as the overbearing General von Schmelling.

Set and props courtesy of Graeme Clewer and Julie Freeman respectively were authentic and accurate with a surprisingly well stocked bar onstage in the fully furnished Café Rene and I really must ask Julie; where does one find a rubber Hitler? All of these were handled cleanly by a stage crew ably lead by Jenner Litchwark.

Costumes were all well suited and realistic with great attention to detail on the German uniforms coming from Judith Clewer.

Lights and sound were simple but effective with the many obscure but necessary sound effects handled cleanly by Technical Director David Buckley.

All in all I must say hats off to the cast and crew of ‘Allo ‘Allo who must surely have a successful season ahead of them this week.

The show opens on Wednesday and tickets are available from Harringtons Gemtime Jewellers.