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Oh What a Lovely War Blackeyed Theatre Wolverhampton Arena ***** It's been a long time since I have
purchased anything, especially a theatre ticket and felt that I should
have paid more , but that thought kept going through my mind as
Blackeyed Theatres splendid production of Oh What a Lovely War
unveiled before me. In this performance every second is loaded with
live music, poignant and witty theatre, comedy and dance. Added to that
list is the fact that it is all delivered by just five players whose
faultless work, timing and sheer talent leaves you breathless at the
rate of which they change hats, and I mean that quite literally. Written in 1963, Oh What a Lovely War is
not only the creation of Joan Littlewood, but also credited to many of
the Theatre Workshop associates and players of the original sixties
cast. In that sense its style is firmly rooted in the genre of a
Footlights review, the military concert party, or shows like ` That
was the week that was' and The Goons. After writing a more
traditional play with a war theme Littlewood felt that ` war is for
clowns' and that gave rise to OWALW. The central theme is the First World War and
between the music, and comedy are projected the chilling statistics of
the scale of human loss, politics and key dates of the time. In truth at times some of the detail is lost in
the speed of delivery or the segue to either another skit, character or
costume change. However it never seems to matter as the contrast from
the cheer of the music hall to the surreal stiff upper lip of the
trenches keeps you focused on the fact that while war is hell, it's also
profitable and politically driven. There is a military precision in the staging of
this production and no one in the cast of Robert Harding, Ben Harrison,
Joseph Mann, Paul Morse and Tom Neil can be singled out as they are all
superb in delivering this highly technical piece of work. At some point each and all of them seemed to be
either playing drums or keyboards, or some other instrument, singing,
acting, and dancing in solo or in unison all to a very high standard.
They even welcome you into your seats and have time for a chat prior to
the show. There are 32 songs, countless costume changes,
rafts of witty and factual dialogue, some in German and French, and
more, that have all been all drilled to perfection by a creative team
skilfully produced and directed by Adrian McDougall. In the traditional sense V might have come to
represent Victory but when it comes to the Blackeyed Theatre, V is for
plain good old Value. A must see. To 19-11-11 Jeff Grant
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