OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR. Hornchurch to 9 March.

Hornchurch

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
by Theatre Workshop, Charles Chilton, Gerry Raffles

Queen's Theatre To 9 March 2002
Runs 2hr 40min One interval

TICKETS 01708 443333
Review Timothy Ramsden 11 February

Bright ideas limited in impact on opening night by need for tighter pacing.It's forty years old, but there's not a trace of irrelevance in Lovely War's material or the format which plays off tragedy against the survival tactics of humour and subversion used by the 'Great' War's soldier workforce.

That contrast is key to any production's success and Bob Carlton's revival catches it with the help of a cast enhanced by the Queen's fine youth theatre and dance companies. Much of the energy too comes from Ben Fox's Pierrot master of ceremonies, a cheery presenter of the War Game the show purports to be.

Rodney Ford's set cunningly catches the bright smile of a sunny seaside resort, switching to a wasted Paul Nash battlescape as the later action moves between the trenches and official blundering. Gassed and blinded infantry; waltzing commanders - the montage of such images make the play's point.

But the Pierrot troupe's stage, useful as it is for many scenes, restricts movements around it. And some key scenes are consigned to a raised platform at the side, limiting their impact – though not that of Dougal Lee's Haig pompously pronouncing strategy and tactics that will kill millions of his countrymen. (Lee also contributes an hilariously incomprehensible Scottish drill sergeant to the bayonet practice scene). And you do have to watch carefully to catch the horror-stats. flowing blood-red across their sign board. And, while we're at it, the projection screen that's flown in for slides of war life is on the small side.

At Press Night there were too many moments where a cue seemed half a second too late – just enough time for energy to drop. This, plus several (to put it mildly) miscues and mangled lines, meant the show wasn't seen at its best.

Several songs too suffered from almost wilful underplaying. The keep-it-quiet-then-hit-'em-with-a-belted-final-chorus approach is O.K. once or twice but some voices sounded as if they'd have been more comfortable with a different register; the occasional voice as if it'd have been more comfortable with no singing at all.

Still, there's most of a month for things to tighten up and let the production's virtues shine through undimmed.

Cast:
John Banister
Jim Bywater
Richard Emerson
Ben Fox
Dougal Lee
Wendy Morgan
Wendy Parkin
Gerard Swift

Young Company:
Michelle Allen
Ashley Baptiste
Mandy Bonfield
David Corbett
Chris Fleming
David Grace
Neil Gray
Ian Grigson
Jodie Kirby
Adam Manning
Ian Masters
Michelle Mitchell
Susie Nunn
Gemma Slater
Danielle Sambrook
Jo Sutherland
Lloyd Warbey

Director: Bob Carlton
Designer: Rodney Ford
Lighting: Chris Jaeger
Sound: Whizz
Musical Staging: Anita Pashley
Musical Director: Carol Sloman

2002-02-12 10:50:23