Chichester's CAOS break new ground with 'Allo 'Allo

They will be taking to the stage with 'Allo 'Allo on Friday, September 1 and Saturday, September 2 at Westbourne House School, Chichester, a piece based on the popular TV series which ran for nine series between September 7 1984 until its conclusion on December 14 1992 – the year show director Adam Fox was born.

Luke Henley who will be playing Rene in the production was, as he says, “the ripe old age of one”, when the series concluded 31 years ago.

Adam is delighted to be overseeing the new move for the company: “We are looking to expand our horizons and do some different stuff and to bring in some different people and we hope that that will then work into our musical theatre that we do. We hope that people might come along to the plays and then think that they want to see us doing the musicals. We think it's just really good for the company to be able to develop both sides and to develop our audiences along those lines.

“I think the last time we did a non-musical was a long long time ago, probably more than ten years so we decided that we would start off by doing something that people would definitely know and we wanted something that would make people laugh.

"Comedy is universal and I just think all our audiences are going to know this. It ran until 1992 which is the year I was born so it was all before I was officially alive! But knowledge comes from my parents. For them it was the era when they were in their 20s and 30s and I do think it's going to appeal to a lot of people.”

Luke agrees: “It was before my generation but I definitely think it's something that people are going to recognise. I remember watching it when I was smaller. When I was growing up I remember watching it with my dad and when I told him they were auditioning for 'Allo 'Allo, his face just lit up. So I've been watching it back and I can really remember it from childhood.”

As for playing Rene: “I think you've got to get this nervous constant worrying energy. It just doesn't stop. Even in a couple of hours of rehearsal, it is knackering. He is flustered running after everyone in the cafe and trying to stop arguments and sort everything out. It's that constant thing of running around knowing that everything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Luke added: “This is my first outing with CAOS. I've seen lots of their shows. I've worked with a number of other societies before and I'm really enjoying doing this.”

Similarly Adam has directed before but not with CAOS: “Most of my CAOS experience has been performing. For me a lot of what I've done has been on the stage but I've directed before with other companies and so I have that link with it. Certainly aspects of me will be thinking it would be fun to be actually in it but we're putting new things in place by doing this and I really want to try to make sure that it's a success that works for us. I just want to be making sure that everything is right and for me the pleasure of directing is seeing everything coming together.”

As for the future: “We do two musicals a year and the idea is to fit a play in the gap between the two of them.”