A CUNNING plan has been hatched to bring one of modern comedy’s most famous characters to the stage.
Blackadder, the historically-themed 1980s show starring Rowan Atkinson, has been adapted for the theatre and South Hill Park is to be the venue for its debut stage performance.
Four episodes have been adapted, covering all periods from the sitcom, by Wokingham Theatre’s Nicky Allpress. Although there have been adaptations before, this is the first time that the entire Blackadder canon has been represented on the stage.
Auditions for the community production took place earlier this year and Adrian McDougall is stepping into Rowan Atkinson’s shoes as the infamous Blackadder.
The play takes the form of a lecture given by a fictitious leading historian Prof Christopher Starkers with an episode from each of the four series (two in each ‘act’) interweaved into the action as he describes various periods in British history.
The Queen of Spain’s Beard is set in the late 15th century and is a comedy of forced marriage; Beer comes from the second series and sees Blackadder simultaneously host his Puritan relatives and a stag do with hilarious consequences.
The third adaptation is Duel & Duality, the final episode of the series set in the regency period and is a comedy of mistaken identity with a deadly twist.
Set during the First World War, the final part is Private Plane and includes a visit from Lord Flashheart, a bravado womanising pilot.
The play’s director, Nicky Allpress, said: “We approached Richard Curtis [the show’s creator] and said we had an idea for a concept that had never been done on stage before.
“It knits together Blackadder with an additional character, a Richard Starkey-esque nutty professor who specialises in the Blackadder dynasty.”
When Ms Allpress came on board, she helped develop the concept, creating the narrative device of a TV roadshow filmed at Bonkham College in Cambridge, to link the various Blackadder scenes together.
And money raised from the amateur production will go to Comic Relief, a charity close to the heart of Blackadder originator Richard Curtis.
Ms Allpress said that preparations are going well.
“I’ve been gifted with such a great cast, I couldn’t have been luckier,” she said. “We’ve exactly the right people for the right roles and the writing is brilliant.”
Blackadder is performed from Wednesday, October 11 to Sunday, October 15 at South Hill Park. Performances are at 7.45pm nightly and 2pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets cost from £14.50 with group rates available.
For details, call the box office on 01344 484123 or log on to www.southhillpark.org.uk
- THE FIRST show of the new season of Wokingham Theatre is to be a production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Things We Do For Love.
The play, set in a Victorian townhouse that has been converted into flats, looks at the lives of the people who live there.
The show will be performed at the Twyford Road theatre from Wednesday, September 6 to Saturday, September 16 at 7.45pm.
Tickets cost £12 and can be booked from the theatre by logging on to www.wokingham-theatre.org.uk
