Theatrical Interlude 1 (2013)

Acropolis Now, The Blakeney Players, Blakeney. January 2013

The first theatre outing of the year and one that didn't need a journey out of the county.

I've said before that I can never be unbiased in my reviews of these shows due to knowing at least one cast member but I think that they out did themselves this winter.

This was pure pantomime, with sketches barely linked to tell a story that was set up from the introduction of the character Hadron the clumsy boy.

We had the Gods on Mount Olympus squabbling amongst themselves - Hera channelling Sybil Fawlty was a stroke of genius - as well as interfering with the lives of the mortals in Acropolis and Troy.

Greek myths merged as the Minotaur and Labyrinth moved to Troy and then there was the Trojan (pantomime) horse. The jokes were dire - yes, the 'what's a Greek earn?' gag was in there but delivered in such a way, with such great set ups that it didn't matter. The song and dance routines were as brilliant as ever but possibly even more tenuously linked to the story than usual. 

I laughed more at this than I can remember laughing at anything since Noises Off.  Any show that manages to get four Harpies singing Tom Lehrer songs *and* a tap dancing horse has to be considered truly brilliant and biased although I am I do think that this rivalled a lot of professional stage productions.

Roll on the summer and the next Blakeney Players extravaganza!

a sneaky photo taken by Mr Norfolkbookworm during the curtain call.
On stage you can see the Harpies, Helen of Troy, Hermes, Zeus's earthly form, Hera, Zeus, Eros and the Muses.