This is the North East Premier of this lively show, new to the local amateur circuit.
The show starts with a lyrical warm up session of nostalgic songs provided by Ruth Gleghorn. The ensemble, under the baton of their musical director Enid Jones, then opens with a thrilling chorus of voices, singing all those well known favourites, that sets the scene and prepares their audience for the treat to come.
The perils of war-time are not ignored, but in true English fashion, if you can laugh at disaster you can cope with it. And laughs there are aplenty. Lindsey Southwick and Diane Henderson are the housewives in the know about everything, off and on the ration, and Gordon Richardson and Maurice McShane as the air raid wardens provide the slapstick element. The school concert provides more than a few smiles and titters, just wait until you see the diminutive Ben Southwick making his debut as a cockerel and what goes on in the local cinema is nobody’s business.
The show contains something for everyone showing how the ordinary lives of the Parker family, not forgetting Grandma who has seen it all before, is disrupted by the war. How the spirits of the troops are ‘raised’ by the camp concert, under the stern eye of their sergeant major played by Stephen White a new face with the group and one to be watched.
Everyone will go out singing, because for once they will all know the words as all the songs are pure nostalgia and eminently sing-able from the first note to the last.