Tag: theatre

Penrith Players Theatre Review

Review by Duncan Gray

Another stage version of the Goon Show appeared in mid-April, down south (well, it was for me). In deepest Cumbria, Penrith Players staged their versions of three classic episodes in one show, The Canal, The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler and The Treasure of Loch Lomond.

Why were Penrith Players performing Goon Shows? The director, Tash Binder, explained that she had the power to choose something for this slot in their programme, and she went with the comedy she’d loved since childhood.

This show wasn’t an attempt to recreate the radio studio. The cast had the freedom of the stage, and beyond, to play out the action. There were a couple of microphones on show, but it was only the announcer who used one as part of his act. The set centred on an old sofa, with props placed strategically around,
including telephones and a hostess trolley fashioned into a portable gas stove. There was a special effects station with equipment and a laptop for grams on a table to the side. Each character also had a hat, surely helping audience members less familiar with the Goons.

And what of the cast? Ian Baker played Greenslade and Grytpype-Thynne, while sharing the FX duties with director Tash. The penny dropped in a mug effect, for one, was used a lot. For Neddie Seagoon, they had a high-energy little Welsh bubble called Vic Brunetti. You’ll guess which one he is in the photos. Neil Gander played Henry Crun, Bloodnok, Willium, and was a particularly good (though taller than you’ve ever imagined) Bluebottle.


The final member of the cast was (gasp, splutter) a female-type lady actor. Jess Crumback-Nyahoe was Minnie Bannister of course, but also played Eccles, Moriarty and Throat. She took the extra parts of Laird McGool and Valentine Dyall too. Let’s face it, a genuine Man in Black voice was always going to be a step too far. With both those characters having exchanges with Eccles, Jess had a lot of hat stacking and quick swapping to do.

The production boasted live music too. Links and the Bloodnok theme came from the cast playing kazoos. Musical interludes were included, just as in the original broadcasts. A young lady called Raven Kitching sang classics such as Stormy Weather and Paper Moon, accompanied by Mark Stewart on piano. The show finished on a song too, the cast performed I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas.

Was it all worthwhile? Absolutely. The production stayed true to the original scripts, I even caught a couple of lines which are missing from the commonly available versions. There was occasionally a fluffed line or corpse, but that just added to the authenticity. The cast had fun, the audience had fun, my non-Goon Show following companion laughed all the way through. It was great to see these scripts getting an outing, let’s have more of the same.

The Penrith Players production runs until Saturday 19th April. Go seek tickets at penrithplayers.org.uk.

See also our review of the Stockton Heath Methodist Dramatic Society production of Six Charlies in Search of an Author

Photos courtesy of Penrith Players

Six Charlies on Stage – review

Six Charlies in Search of an Author
a review by Richard Usher

show poster

There have been four professional UK stage productions of The Goon Show since 2014, and it is rare for amateur dramatic groups to gain permission to perform these classic shows, so it must have been a delightful surprise for the members of the Stockton Heath Methodist Dramatic Society when they got the green light to stage Six Charlies in Search of an Author.

The production was part of a double bill of classic radio shows adapted to stage performance, the first half being Orson Welles’ legendary War of the Worlds. These two shows might seem strange bedfellows at first glance, but as it turned out, they complemented each other rather well.

The stage set was extremely well-made and was a convincing backdrop for a vintage radio theatre, complete with CBS logo. The Goon Show offering made up the second half of the bill and was introduced by director Paul Thompson in a style that slightly echoed the John Browell and Dirk Maggs openings to The Last Goon Show of All and Goon Again. The entrance of a sound operator in a white coat and the request to take us from 1930’s America to Britain in 1956 added a lovely touch of the surreal to the proceedings, especially when he nodded and swapped the CBS logo for a plaque displaying a vintage BBC logo.

If you went along expecting to see a group of actors channel Sellers, Secombe and Milligan you would have been disappointed. What we got instead was the cast taking on the various roles the original Goons played in the show, and it worked a treat! Hazel Bradley bravely took on the Wallace Greenslade role and delivered her lines with true BBC announcer aplomb. Nonagenarian thesp, Bert Rigby, took on the roles of Jim Spriggs, the famous Eccles and Henry Crun and clearly had a lot of fun with the characters. The same can be said of Gill Murphy who gave us her best Grytpype Thynne and Bluebottle, and Alex Clarke erupting on stage as Major Bloodnok and doing his best to convey Moriarty. While Kevin Mottershead may not have had the well built and diminutive stature of Neddy Seagoon, he left you in no doubt that he was an equally energetic Charlie.

Musical contributions were few, and this production definitely owed a lot to the director’s love of the EMI Goon But Not Forgotten album version, and none the worse for it. The big plus was the array of spot FX, brilliantly performed live on stage and ably assisted by some terrific sound design from Mike Rigby.

This show was not a tribute act, nor was it trying to re-imagine the Goon Show of old. It was an enthusiastic, very well directed and energetically performed piece of theatre that proved beyond doubt that the script writing of Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens can transcend its original context and still get the laughs and applause.