Privates on Parade

A subversive comedy about an army entertainment corps stationed in South East Asia in 1948, Privates on Parade charts the journey of young Steven Flowers, who is thrown into the Song and Dance Unit South East Asia, deep in the Malayan jungle. By evoking the great stars of the time, from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to Carmen Miranda and Noël Coward, he achieves a spectacular rite of passage with a little help from the outrageous Captain Terri Dennis.

Peter Nichols's 1977 revue-style portrait of Army life, set in 1940s Malaya and documenting the frenetically sexual, mostly gay, often desperate antics of a song-and-dance unit, attached, as one soldier drawls, to 'the Queen's Own Middlesex Regiment'.

The show has eleven musical numbers, most of them pastiches of styles of the day, such as "Could you please inform us how we came to lose the war" a homage to Noël Coward, and "Sunnyside Lane" a Flanagan and Allen number.

The play is largely based on Nicols's own post-wartime experiences as a member of C.S.E or Combined Services Entertainments, where he shared a stage with none other than John Schlesinger, Stanley Baxter and Kenneth Williams. The outfit, under command of "stiff-upper-lip" Major Giles Flack, is a performance unit called SADUESA: Song and Dance Unit, South-East Asia. The company is also under the command of an outlandish theatrical queen, Dennis. Together, the unlikely duo of Flack and Dennis have to prepare the troupe for the tour of the war zone. They are accompanied by a psychotic Sargent-Major, who's involved in selling arms to rebels; and a young officer, recently transfered from the Intelligence Corps.

Director Elaine Heath (previously director of "A Month of Sundays" & "Kindertransport") has cast a number of SLT regulars, including Bob Callender, Stuart Flitton, Joe Williams, and Elinor Morgan Jones - together with a number of new faces. Recognising the Donmar¹s recent productions¹ rather keen emphasis on the comical angle of the piece, Heath is keen to explore the darker side of the play - without losing the humour. With musical direction by Alan Walker and lighting design by Mike Elliot, this promises to be a challenging and entertaining evening's entertainment.

Nichols's band of Brits - the knobbly-kneed, spectacled nerd who is doomed to disappointment; the uptight proselytiser for Empire and Church who's on the make; the long-married man whose real devotion is to his male lover - has a distinctly period flavour. But the scepticism about their activities overseas is thoroughly modern. And the dextrous acerbity of the dialogue hasn't lost any savour: it's a feast of phrases. It also has an unconventional beating heart.

Elaine Heath - director.
elaine@southlondontheatre.co.uk