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| Cast |
| Roz Betts | Alex Board |
| Geoffrey Clifton-Green | Milton Conn-Goodman |
| Tony Donnelly | Stephanie Dungate |
| Vicky Findlay | Peter Griffin |
| David Hampton | Maureen Hardwen |
| Ross Holland | Jim Jeram |
| Wendy Jones | Claire Kingshott |
| Chris Manning-Perry | Christine McKeon |
| Freda Phillips | Stuart Pinel |
| George Robinson | Georgia Robinson |
| Vera Robinson | Jean Sharp |
| Brian Warner | Dave Webster |
| Charlotte Wheeler | Amanda Whittle |
| Crew | |
| Stage Manager/Production Assistant | Jenny Devonshire |
| Assistant Stage Managers | Cath Bateman, Janet Hampton |
| Lighting | Tim Hewitt |
| Sound | Keith Dungate |
| Set Design | Mike Higginson |
| Set Construction | Mike Higginson, Clark Findlay, Derek Goulding, Janet Findlay, Jerry McKeon, Allison Henderson |
| Additional Design | Nicole Antras |
| Properties | Jenny Devonshire |
| Costumes | Freda Phillips |
| Musical Direction & Choreography | Derek Goulding |
| Music | Bernard Tilley |
Special thanks to Welling United FC for the loan of the stretcher, to Jenny for all her patience, to Paula for making and sewing so many costumes on her debut, to Bill Ayling for the foyer displays from wartime magazines, to John Midland for having kept a hobby horse and several rifles in mothballs for the last twenty years and to Erith Playhouse and Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre for the loan of certain properties.
Review
Entertaining and moving portrayal of war
In 1976, the newly formed Edward Alderton Theatre group adventurously selected Oh What a Lovely War for its first major production. When the EAT's current artistic director Mike Higginson decided to put on a show worthy of the company's 20th anniversary, it was clear another revival of the work created by Joan Littlewood and members of her renowned Theatre Workshop would be the ideal choice. In particular, the scale of the show allows many members of the company to participate and it provides every performer with an opportunity to make a telling contribution.
While it is called an 'entertainment', it treads a very uneasy route as it relates the unimaginable horrors of World War I in concert with a lighthearted Pierrot show that might have been seen at any British seaside resort earlier in the century.
Mike Higginson and his company have succeeded where many others have faltered. Derek Goulding's musical direction and choreography create atmosphere and clear delineation. The humour has a satirical cynicism in its approach that gives it deeply subtle meanings. The generals who treated their men as little more than cannon fodder are depicted as part parodies and part frighteningly inhuman autocrats. The soldiers are bewildered, fatalistic human beings while those they have left at home are blinded to the reality of war by the patriotic propaganda they are fed.
A screen at the back of the stage provides the almost unbelievable statistics of the war. It is a tribute to the commitment of many EAT's actors that Maureen Hardman, Freda Phillips, Vera Robinson, George Robinson and David Hampton as well as Derek Goulding were all in the 1976 production and now play a big part in this new one.
I have to mention Ross Holland who, among other parts, brings an effervescence to his role as Master of Ceremonies and also sings very well. Other impressive vocalists include Claire Kingshott, Stuart Pinel, Maureen Hardwen and Wendy Jones, while the acting of the whole cast is of a high calibre. The always entertaining and often moving show is beautifully costumed by Freda Phillips and Paula Gibbs, effectively lit by Tim Hewitt and superbly interpreted by Mike Higginson. Oh What a Lovely War continues until this Saturday.
Roy Atterbury
Kentish Times | 16 May 199676
