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Last night (23/1/24), I attended the regional press night of ‘Oh, What a lovely war!’ by Blackeyed Theatre - at the Yvonne Arnaud.
‘Oh What a Lovely War’ is a show performed by 6 actor-musician performers, who tell the story of World War 1, with some comedic moments and lots of well-known War anthems such as ‘Keep the homefires burning’ and ‘It's a long way to Tipperary’.
The performance began as we entered the auditorium, with the cast roaming the audience and interacting from the stage - this set up the feel and atmosphere perfectly for this performance as it has its own unique and interesting style.
The set was also a great atmosphere-builder as it shows the performance tent of the pierrot troupe that would be entertaining us for the next two hours!
The writing of the show by Joan Littlewood has a great number of witty moments and hilarious jokes - all mixed in nicely with true facts and stories from the war. This gives the cast a great piece of material to work with.. I just wish it had a stronger ending overall.. It felt like it all of a sudden just wrapped itself up - but nonetheless whilst it was going, it was very good.
The cast consists of six, very talented, actor musicians - all of whom played a number of different instruments throughout! I love seeing actor-musos in musicals. I think it is awesome and they are all so very greatly talented (coming from someone who can’t play an instrument at all…). The performers were: Tom Benjamin, Tom Crabtree, Harry Curley, Alice E Mayer, Chioma Uma and Euan Wilson. Each member of this cast multi-rolled a plethora of different characters throughout the show and all displayed wonderful vocal talent, singing some of the greatest war-time songs. The absolute standout performance for me came from Harry Curley. I thought that he switched flawlessly between different characters, accents and physicalities too - as well as impeccable comedic timing making sure everything landed well - and it did!
Nicky Allpress’ direction brought a lot of physical comedy to the stage - to go along with the verbal moments written by Joan Littlewood. The show has a very informal style to it with elements of vaudeville and circus thrown in for good measure!
Although I wasn’t really the target audience for the show - I’ve been brought up around a lot of these songs and was able to enjoy that, but what makes this show even more special was the older generations around me who were able to sing, tap and hum along to these songs from their past which was extremely special to witness.
The lighting was beautifully designed and accented the piece so very well, But I unfortunately cannot say the same for the sound. Although it was a lovely stylistic choice, none of the cast members were equipped with a microphone to advance the volume of their voices. This meant that on a few occasions (particularly in the first act) a couple of words in each song were completely lost in the volume and I did wonder what they were saying. I do think in a smaller venue perhaps this may not have been an issue.
But to end on a positive, it is filled with stunning harmonies and the vocals are on point! Each performer is extremely talented and nobody feels like a weak link within the company.
‘Oh, What a Lovely War!’ is running at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford until Saturday 27th January 2024 - and tickets can be purchased from the following link:
Go and get some tickets! You won’t want to miss it!
24th January 2024
Robbie Davies | Robbie’s Backstage Bants
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