By Steve Dinneen
This summer, as temperatures soar and international flights don’t, Alexandra Palace Theatre offers Londoners escapism, rather than escape. From the producers of Six the Musical and The Play That Goes Wrong, Tom, Dick and Harry, is an engaging retelling of allied POWs’ attempts to break out of Stalag Luft III.
The Great Escape is a movie that permeates English society to such an extent that even those who have never seen it still know the story beats, and could probably whistle the theme tune.
Tom, Dick and Harry is inspired by the same real-life events, so it benefits from an immediate sense of familiarity. The audience clearly anticipates the arrival of certain events and scenes, but like its celluloid counterpart, this play exercises artistic license, which keeps viewers on their guard.
Indeed, complacency is impossible in a production that mixes fourth wall-breaking language gags, mime, song, swing dancing, acrobatics, football, boxing, a drag show, slapstick, cycling, and pantomime-levels of audience participation. Some elements are more successful than others, but the relentlessness and honesty of the performances steadily draws in the audience.
Theresa Heskins’ direction is an astonishing feat of choreography. She also co-wrote the play with two of the actors; Andrew Pollard and Michael Hugo. Tom, Dick, and Harry gives its characters the time and space necessary to interact with one another, presenting them as relatable people.
We expect the mustachioed Squadron Leader Ballard (Dominic Thorburn) to be confident and heroic, but here even the primary antagonist, the tightly-wound prison guard Giesler (David Fairs), is given an emotional outburst that recontextualises his actions from those of a frustrated cartoon villain into someone with whom the audience can at least empathise.
Staging the play in the round is used to great effect, but some actors were difficult to hear, depending on which way they were facing. While the text of the play was generally very good, the same cannot be said of all of the lyrics. We may agree that “it’s important to mention, the Geneva Convention”, but that line should never be sung.
Alexandra Palace is an appropriate venue for the play, having served as a prisoner of war camp during World War I. More than 17,000 Germans and other civilian POWs were interned there between 1914 and 1919. Arrive early, and you can check out the commemorative plaque, and magnificent views over London before watching the play.
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