Tickets for Jack Absolute Flies Again are selling fast, with just a few seats left at some performances.
Tickets for Jack Absolute Flies Again are selling fast, with just a few seats left at some performances.
Shoestring’s latest play at Stamford Arts Centre is described as “an uproarious tale of derring-do and romance” and is set in the Battle of Britain summer of 1940.
After an aerial dog fight, Pilot Officer Jack Absolute flies home to win the heart of his old flame, Lydia Languish. But Jack’s advances take a chaotic turn with the involvement of fellow officers and their girlfriends at Malaprop Hall, requisitioned as an RAF base.
Jack Absolute Flies Again was first performed at The National Theatre in London in 2022 and is based on Sheridan’s classic play The Rivals, written in the 1770s, the title referring to the love rivals within it.
Original characters, including Mrs Malaprop and her legendary use of similar-sounding but incorrect words, appear as 1940s incarnations, complete with Shoestring’s typically excellent costumes.
Speaking at a rehearsal in the St Mary’s Street venue, director Ken Walsh said he had seen Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National Theatre and found it ‘hilarious’, and having previously directed Shoestring in the comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, also co-written by Richard Bean, he felt it would go down well with audiences.
“We’re really excited about this production,” he said. “It’s a wonderful, funny script and we’re very lucky to have a cast who can recreate the characters so well.”
Having acted locally for 20 years, Ken took up directing 15 years ago. His next directing project will be Macbeth at Tolethorpe next summer.
Several of the Jack Absolute cast members will have been seen performing in different guises in the past.
Cassandra Pattison, who plays army volunteer Julia Melville, is a member of local group The Vintage Singers and will be in the ‘Shoestring Sweethearts’ trio, who will sing Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree, Pennsylvania 6-5000 and The White Cliffs of Dover as audiences take their seats before curtain-up.
Those going along will also be treated to a 1940s dance routine by the cast during Act II, and film snippets created by Estella Todisco using RAF footage from the Second World War and actors’ voice overs.
Estella, who also plays Mrs Malaprop’s maid, said: “Although the production is funny, it makes fun of the characters, not the RAF, and it has poignant moments. A bit like the end of Blackadder Goes Forth, this might result in a few tears in people’s eyes.”
Jack Absolute Flies Again is performed at 7.45pm on Tuesday, December 3 through to Saturday, December 7.
Tickets are £12, concessions £10, from stamfordartscentre.com or by calling the box office on 01780 763203.
