ADOLF HITLER 
– MY PART IN HIS DOWNFALL

  reviewed for The Public Reviews

Mercury Theatre Colchester

05.05.10

“Warning – contains barrack room humour.”

A few off-colour jokes and a sprinkling of expletives is nothing to write home about in today's theatre, but rarely do you come across a show so completely suited to its format, so wonderfully hilarious.

The stage is heaped with sandbags; in the centre spot, a screen with a pair of boots and a microphone. Behind the screen, we discover, is Gunner Milligan blowing bubbles, and a trumpet, in a tin bath. And behind that, a huge “Dreaming of Colchester ” backdrop [re-worked for each tour date, no doubt], which collapses over the drummer and his kit at the end of each act. Applause too enthusiastic, apparently, according to the MC …

Matthew Devereaux's chummy officer catches just the right tone, and in this multi-talented cast also plays a mean reed, as well as giving us an enthusiastic Fuhrer impression.

Tim Carroll's production, co-written with Ben Power, rightly includes a generous helping of the music that Milligan's Boys Of Battery D played in church halls and NAAFIs whenever they could.

Spike himself played trumpet, of course, and he is brought back to anarchic life here by Sholto Morgan: insolent, acerbic, the inspiration behind all the skits and sketches that intersperse the music and the military action. And, at the end, we watch him succumbing to the depression that was to dog his life. Henderson and Brown's “The Thrill Is Gone” the theme song here.

Tony Goldsmith, the officer whose friendship sustained Spike through most of the war, was sensitively played by William Findlay. His death in action in 1943 was one of the sombre moments which gave the production its strength – watching London burn in the Blitz another - a poignant juxtaposition with the madcap foolery which would later go on to inspire the Goons.

Another such moment was the a cappella singing of O God Our Help. The show was packed with inventive business, honed and developed over long tours of duty. The troop ship for Africa, for instance, included pathos, vomiting, mime, all leading seamlessly to the Sheik of Araby with all the missing instruments supplied vocally.

And the mug of tea permanently attached to Harry Edgington [Dominic Gerrard, piano] was one of several inspired running gags that kept us chuckling. David Morley Hale [Gunner Kidgell] was the most cynical, seen-it-all soldier of the quintet – bass and guitar - I loved his contribution to the operatic variations on Tommy Trinder. This based on a poem written by the real “Duke” Edginton.

Almost the whole show was based word-for-word on Spike's account of the war – recollections of Amalfi, musings on tomato sauce and tarts, mind-reading, music and manic humour.

I'm sure Gunner Milligan would have been as delighted as the Mercury audience.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews