Grantham Dramatic Society has pulled off another coup with it latest production at the Guildhall.
It was always going to be difficult to stage anything that could trump the triumph that was last year’s production of Calendar Girls, but GDS has made a fantastic effort.
Boeing Boeing is a French farce written in 1960 by playwright Marc Camoletti and it ran for 19 years in Paris. Comedy is never an easy thing to pull off, and farce is even tougher as the play builds up to a crescendo with complicated plot and everybody in a frenzy firing their lines at one another.
The farcical story concerns a Parisian man who has three fiancees, all of them air hostesses and of different nationalities - American, Italian and German. But Richard Geldard’s character Bernard can handle the situation as the hostesses all have different timetables to work to and so their paths will not cross at Bernard’s apartment. Of course, it all goes wrong, their paths do cross and the farce begins.
The cast struggled slightly at times having to be prompted from off-stage, but they gallantly ploughed on and pulled off a successful evening. Geldard was larger than life as Bernard and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his time on stage. Briony Sparrow, Tami Brown and Lucy Smith get stuck into their roles as the hostesses and Allison Allen, in her first big part with GDS, does well in the cynical role of the maid Bertha. Craig Edgley as Robert, Bernard’s long-lost friend, puts on an assured performance.
GDS has found itself another winner with Boeing Boeing. The run ends tonight at the Guildhall Arts Centre at 7.30pm. Call the box office on 01476 406158 or go to www.guildhallartscentre.com
