'Allo 'Allo 2: The Camembert Caper takes Chichester’s CAOS Musical Productions back to Rene's cafe for another cheesy adventure.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, lovely to
00:06speak again to Adam Fox of Chaos Musical Productions. Now last year, Chaos tried something slightly
00:11different with a straight play, well not straight, completely straight, a very funny play, L.O.L.O.
00:16And you're back this summer with the next instalment, L.O.L.O. No. 2, Part 2. You're
00:23directing both, what's the fun in L.O.L.O.? Why is it such a classic, do you think?
00:29L.O.L.O. for me, it's got the right blend between stupidity and clever writing. It has
00:37all of the silly jokes in there, but there's quite a lot in there that is kind of witty
00:43play on words and kind of cutting remarks and that kind of side. So I think L.O.L.O.'s
00:48real strength lies in how diverse it is and the type of comedy that it brings. And it
00:53allows different people to laugh at different things throughout the play, which is a real
00:58strength in my opinion.
00:59And what's the challenge for you as a director? Presumably, you've got to keep it going at
01:03a fair old lick, haven't you?
01:06Yeah. One of the main things in L.O.L.O. directing challenge is pacing and keeping it moving
01:11and keeping it going from joke to joke, essentially. But what we tried to do mostly last year was
01:17be as faithful to the TV programme as we possibly could. We knew that people would want to see
01:23L.O.L.O., the TV programme, on the stage rather than us re-imagining the whole thing.
01:29Most of my gig has been trying to get those characters as close to the TV counterparts
01:33as we can.
01:34And that's interesting you say that, that the clear implication is that that TV programme
01:38hasn't aged in any way, that you don't have to change things. There's not sort of political
01:42correctness or anything like that. It still stands as it was, does it?
01:46Yeah. I mean, because of the nature of what the jokes were based on and kind of the silly
01:52humour of it and the odd bit of wit here and there, given it's a show that has obviously
01:59the Germans in it, the Nazis in it and the French resistance and all that kind of what
02:03you would think potentially could be murky ground. Because of the way the comedy is written,
02:08it doesn't really infringe on that in any kind of majorly not politically correct way.
02:13It was something that we thought on quite strongly before we took it on. But having
02:17read both scripts, we really haven't had to change much at all.
02:21Fantastic. And last year was about establishing this slot for the straight theatre, not musical
02:26theatre. And clearly you did that last year then.
02:30Yeah, we had a really, really good response. So we had a good audience response. Our cast
02:36really enjoyed doing it. And that was the goal, that was the aim, was to bring different
02:41audiences in, hopefully have everyone enjoy it and then potentially keep it running year
02:46on year if it was a success. So I'm happy to say we're back again this year. And so,
02:51yeah, it all went well.
02:53Fantastic. We're really good to speak to you again. It's the play July 11th to 13th,
03:00Westbourne and School and tickets available from the Chaos website.
03:04Adam, good to speak to you. Thank you.
03:06Lovely. Thank you, Phil.