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Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick

Review

The man who might have been born to play Kenneth Williams erupts on to the stage with fluting, drawling, laughing, leering voice, nose in the air and metaphorical prunes in his camp little cheeks.

In short, Lewis Bailey makes perfect sense of the line in Terry Johnson's play, 'It's the delivery they laugh at.'

The down-side is that Bailey is so effective that he runs the risk of over-balancing HumDrum's production. He can make Terry Moore's Sid James seem almost bland.

Director James George wanted impressions rather than impersonations, but the impression of Sid's laugh is nowhere near dirty enough.

At the end, though, when fear of old age grips the character, Moore's performance acquires true depth.

Johnson has the rare ability to take audiences in a trice from ribald farce to tragedy, and that quality is particularly notable here in the contrast between the capers of the Carry On film actors and the reality of their lives - the hollowness behind the hurrahs.

Barbara Windsor, the third key character, is played by Helen Stoddart with impressive truthfulness, even when having her bra whipped off her in a sleight of hand.

With the other three actors filling their roles capably, this is one of the outstanding amateur productions of the year so far.

Mike Allen - The News