By GEOFF VIVIAN
Esperance people who had enjoyed the 1980s BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo have been eagerly awaiting the Bijou Theatre production of the play of the same name by the TV series’ original authors.
It is set in WWII France, and most of the action takes place in a café run by a French resistance operative who is also concealing a stolen painting for a corrupt German official.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”4″ display=”basic_slideshow” maximum_entity_count=”500″]Photos: Geoff Vivian
We were treated to a great set, lighting, costumes, and lively repartee, though I was distracted by bad attempts at French, German and Italian accents for the first few minutes.
Then the character Crabtree blew this away.
Scott Suttar played the British agent posing as a French policeman, and the script had him deliberately mispronouncing words to hilarious effect.
So reminding myself that this play was a deliberate farce, I settled down to enjoy a couple of hours of increasing absurdity.
Of course none of it would have worked without some great comedy acting, particularly on the part of the four main characters.
They were café proprietors René and Edith Artois, played by Derek Clarke and Mary McCulloch, and waitresses Yvette and Mimi, played by Renae Poot and Anabelle Paxton-Cooper.
The house was almost full when I was there on the second night, with the audience clearly delighted throughout the play.
Many of the cast and crew have been involved with the Bijou for decades, with successive productions seeing them switch roles from acting to crew to front-of-house and sometimes directing.
Director Mak Bailye said this was the 50th Bijou production he had been involved in.
The quality of the performance was a tribute to his own abilities as well as the well-rounded education of all aspects of theatre the Esperance Theatre Guild offers.
