Boeing Boeing

It is 45 years since Yeadon Amateur Operatic and Drama Society last performed this particular play at Yeadon Town Hall in 1970, but its content and humour is still as good as it was half a century ago when it was written by the French playwright Marc Camoletti.

Set in Paris, this fast moving comedy tells the tale of Bernard, a bachelor, living the good life in France’s capital city. He couldn’t be happier – a nice flat with a view across the city to the Eiffel Tower, and three fiancées in tow. Yes, three of them, all of whom are stewardesses and by the fact that they are jetting around the world on TAA, Air France and Lufthansa flights, he is able with the use of his trusty airline timetable from Orly airport to keep them all apart and without them knowing about each other.

His life suddenly gets rather bumpy, or turbulent in airline jargon, when the airline companies start upgrading their planes to larger more powerful Boeing engines which speed up the flight times and upset all his careful planning. His friend from schooldays Robert also arrives in Paris to stay with Bernard and suddenly all three stewardesses are in town simultaneously due to speedier flights and weather problems and Robert is forgetting which lies to tell to whom and as such catastrophic mayhem looms.

All of the six cast members were excellent in their parts. Andy Dobson, whom I must give special mention to as he took over the role of Bernard at short notice only three or four weeks prior to the opening night, never put a foot wrong as Bernard, the leading character in the production. He was well supported by his male co-star Howard Clements as the bumbling Robert. A touch of glamour was added by the three female stewardesses; Caroline Marston as Jacqueline the American, Vivienne Bednall as Janet the French stewardess and Jacky Campbell as Judith the vivacious German. All of these coped admirably with their various accents and also some speedy clothing changes.

The final member of the cast I feel also deserves a special mention and this was Doreen Seaman in the role of Bertha, Bernard’s harassed housekeeper who also has to keep his illicit love affairs secret from each of the three fiancées. Some of the one liners she had brought howls of laughter from the audience on the opening night.

It was disappointing that the hall was only half occupied on the opening night – the obvious work the cast had put in over months of rehearsals certainly deserved better and I just hope that the numbers improved for the rest of the run up to Saturday. Yes, there were a few opening night problems, the odd prompt needed here and there, and perhaps in some parts it could have been a little slicker, but Kath Williams the Director had done a very good job with the production and I thought the set design by Sarah Logan and the build by Keith Darnborough and his team was excellent.

Certainly a good night out with a belly full of laughs from the superb cast. Well done to all concerned. I look forward to their next production of Little Shop of Horrors which runs from 8 to 12 March 2016.

by John Burland