Boeing Boeing | harlowtheatre-co

Boeing Boeing. Written by Marc Camoletti. Directed by Sharon Wilson - Oct 2014

Review: Harlow Star 30th October 2014

Comedy, especially farce, is not the easiest thing to accomplish on stage - timings, movements and speech have to be spot on to ensure it can elicit a laugh from an audience.

Harlow Theatre Company’s Boeing Boeing got the genre spot-on. When the audience, a packed house at Victoria Hall on opening night, were not laughing they were catching their breaths to start again. Boeing Boeing was very, very funny, and with my cheeks hurting from smiling and my belly hurting from laughing; it was the perfect antidote to a cold dark October evening.

Boeing Boeing is all about Bernard (played by Alan Grant) an organised bachelor engaged to three stewardesses - “his international harem” - all of whom are oblivious to each other. Bernard’s perfect and well-planned life begins to unravel when friend Robert (played by Jim Thompson) comes to stay and, thanks to flight delays, fast planes and weather problems, all three stewardesses are in town.

Director Sharon Wilson has perfectly captured the chaos that makes Boeing Boeing a farcical comedic classic.

Special mention needs to be given to Jim Thompson who played the slightly awkward, endearing and continuously funny Robert with brilliant energy. Just a sigh and a high-pitched mumble had the audience in stitches. His timing was spot on and, as an audience member, I couldn’t have asked for a funnier performance.Caroline Petherbride as Bertha the maid was the perfect bit of sarcasm the play needed, her French accent was great and her sounds of shock still have me laughing every time I think of them.

Alan and Jim were fantastic in their panic as things start to unravel and the pair complemented each other wonderfully.

All three stewardesses - played by Jane Prangnell, Sarah Randall and Alyssa Upton - were marvellously funny. Even after reliving the show on the car ride home I could not decide who my favourite out of the trio was.

It is Harlow Theatre Company’s first venture in quite some time into farce and if Boeing Boeing is anything to go by I wish they would do it more often.

The performers were spot on, and the laugh-ensuing moments came thick and fast, you couldn’t really ask for anything better to brighten up your day.