Ian Hislop and Nick Newman have teamed up to create a new stage play based on the life of Spike Milligan which started it’s run at Darlington Hippodrome this week.
The play ‘Spike’ tells the story of the young Spike Milligan, coming out of World War Two and writing and performing with The Goon Show – which became a phenomenon. I was lucky to get to review the show and I took my dad along to see what it was all about. He is a fan so was excited to see it!
The show starts with a woman who although remained nameless on the titles provided sounds for the radio show by hand rather than technically. She illustrates this brilliantly and it does give an insight into the detail that went into the show.
The performances of the main characters were both hilarious and humbling. The characters are making you laugh one minute but then when it flashes back to Spike’s war years your’re left wondering how deeply affecting it was for that generation. It was clear that Spike’s comedy genius was groundbreaking and inspirational and perhaps his work was ahead of his time which is actually mentioned in the play. You can certainly see where many modern comedians have taken his zany and unusual ideas and ran with them!
The cast were very captivating in this play and played so many different characters throughout. I admired their commitment to each role and certainly they provided some great comedy moments. I could see audience members really engaged and a lot of laughter particularly at Spike’s one liners! The clever use of the set made the show really be able to tell his story and having a song at the end of the show really helped lift a dreary Tuesday night.
Spike is on at Darlington Hippodrome from 18th-22nd October so do catch it while you can! thanks to Darlington Hippodrome for inviting me to see the play!
(pr tickets)
I’m Cassie, a mum of 3, (most of the time I haven’t had chance to straighten my hair or drink a hot cup of tea) trying to juggle life as we all are and failing some of the time, but try and see my glass as half full!