The Lamp Theatre and Arts Venue operates from Brownhills Community Centre by the Miner Island on Chester Road, drawing in a number of successful musical theatre and opera groups who have adopted the Lamp as a permanent rehearsal and performance space, putting on almost thirty shows over the last couple of years, ranging from the Rat Pack songbook to the light comic opera of Gilbert & Sullivan.
Building on this success, Community Association Manager Jan Davies applied for and won a grant from the Community Development Fund to set up and run a local theatre group in the Brownhills area to be closely associated with the Lamp Theatre. This done, the problem now lay in finding a show to produce within the guidelines and the six month deadline of the grant.
So in September 2019, Centre staff Nigel Anderson and Martin Hughes – producers by default – looked around: the scripts were out there, pantos, farces, murder mysteries and serious dramatic pieces were all read through and rejected. Someone even said they could write a better show themselves.
Was there something out there that would not only pull in an audience but attract a cast of actors and a director for the first production of a fledgling theatre group?
It was at this point that the team asked what sort of show they would like to see themselves and began thinking of the classic TV comedies, parroting favourite catchphrases such as ‘Don’t panic!’ and ‘I have a cunning plan’ and Jan, Nigel and Martin finally settled on long-running BBC favourite ‘Allo ‘Allo as a solid show with audience pulling power as repeats still run strongly on YouTube and satellite channels on UK television.
An initial call for people to audition had a great response and flurries of e-mails quoting the show flowed back and forth, along with offers of German sausages stuffed with priceless portraits of the Fallen Madonna. Before full rehearsals started, the cast assembled for an initial read through of the script and were soon in stitches –the ‘Allo ‘Allo play is based on the TV show, with a script by original writers Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft every bit as funny as the BBC series ever was.
There remained the predicament of finding a director who could manage a lively cast and chaotically comic script laden with double entendre and farce. After several false starts, Cannock lad Martin Popov was persuaded on board as director. Martin is a science teacher during working hours and actor/director every weekend and most nights of the week, with a long list of credits including theatre and work as a film extra, giving Martin and his friends the opportunity to watch himself on the silver screen in Punjabi movie Jhalle at the local multiplex last November.
‘Allo ‘Allo runs at the Lamp Theatre in Brownhills on 13th and 14th March, tickets are available from thelamparts.co.uk or on (01543) 452119. Tickets are £8.00 including light refreshments.
I shall say this only once: Don’t miss it!