Isleworth Actors Company is back again with Ken Lee's joyous, yet poignant and often moving musical recollection of the second world war, writes Michael Daintry.
Churchill, Hitler, Max Miller, Carmen Miranda, Tommy Handley, Vera Lynn, and Lord Haw Haw are only a few of characters delightfully portrayed between excerpts from more than fifty popular songs of the period.
The singing, both solo and ensemble is a delight, and the songs sufficiently memorable to prompt many members of the audience to join in. For the young Happy As A Sandbag is both entertaining and informative, especially when they see the size of the food ration from the 1940s. For those of us who lived through those dark days, Happy As A Sandbag evokes a host of joyful, sad, and light-hearted memories of evacuees, shortages, doodlebugs, the blackout, and the anguish at the separation of families and friends for long periods, often never to be reunited.
Above all, the show brings out the determination of the British people not to give in. Thanks to a grant from Awards for All, Isleworth Actors Company and director Dudley Rogers have assembled a professional cast of eight accomplished and energetic musical comedy actors, and a trio led from the piano by musical director Helena Brown.
Performances continue at Isleworth Public Hall, South Street, Isleworth, from Wednesday November 1 to Saturday November 4 at 7.45pm.Tickets £10 (concs £7).
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