Review of production at the Witness Hilton
Arts Festival by Caroline Smart
Darren King, Clare Mortimer and Anthony
Stonier provided an entertaining programme at the festival called At the Drop of a Hat. The show takes its
title from the hugely popular long-running revues of the British comedy duo,
actor and singer Michael Flanders and composer/pianist Donald Swann, in the mid-50’s
to mid-60’s.
With biting and often rapid-fire lyrics,
their songs were full of refreshing humour and memorable choruses. King,
Mortimer and Stonier chose to include The
Gasman Cometh (bemoaning that no tradesman finishes a job without creating the
need to call someone else in to fix it!) as well as The Gnu, Have Some Madeira M'Dear and A Transport of Delight.
I fondly remember the Smart family in full
voice singing the latter (about the driver and conductor of a London omnibus) while driving from Nairobi to Mombasa
in a car filled with two dogs, a cat and holiday suitcases. Even more incongruous
was the fact that the drive could at any moment have been interrupted by the appearance
of a rhino or an elephant!
The show aims to celebrate British humour
and includes songs from a diverse assortment of British stars ranging from Noel
Coward, Gracie Fields, Tony Hancock and Joyce Grenfell to the more modern-day
with Victoria Wood.
Songs by Noel Coward formed the major
content of the show with Stately Homes of
England; Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs Worthington; I went to a
Marvellous Party; Mad about the Boy; A Bar on the Piccola Marina; Mad Dogs and
Englishmen and Uncle Harry.
The latter, dealing with Uncle Harry who’s “not
a Missionary Now” was a strange choice as it had formed part of Anthony Stonier
and Lisa Bobbert’s show Because We Can
which had been performed in the same venue no less than a few hours previously.
While all three performers are acclaimed in
their own right, there is a misbalance of energies with the more overt
King and Stonier overshadowing Mortimer, who is an excellent actress but will
admit herself that she is not a singer. She is best seen in a piece made famous
by Joyce Grenfell about a primary school teacher trying to get her young pupils
to be a flower circle. – Caroline Smart
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