Over the top!
Coming to the stage in April 2024 - Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth series of the popular BBC show written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton.
Blackadder Goes Forth is set in 1917 on the Western Front in the trenches of World War I where we find Captain Edmund Blackadder stuck in the trenches of the Great War alongside the particularly stupid Private S. Baldrick, and the ridiculously optimistic Lieutenant George. To make matters worse he is under the inept command of General Melchett and staff officer Captain Darling. To avoid the ever-present danger of being sent over the top to almost certain death, Blackadder must come up with a series of cunning plans, each of them doomed to failure until he finally resorts to pretending to be mad. World-class, iconic comedy with a poignant message on the futility of war.
We are going to be recreating three episodes from the series
Private Plane
After Squadron Commander the Lord Flashheart crash lands on Blackadder’s “squalid bit of trench”, the boys decide to join the Twenty-Minuters with their “soft tucker, tasty beds, fluffy uniforms". It gets them out of the trench and into the air, but the trench moves for the first time in years and Blackadder and Baldrick end up crash-landing on the wrong side and locked up in a German prison cell awaiting their fate.
General Hospital
George is injured when a bomb hits the trench and he is shipped off to the field hospital, where Command suspect there is a German spy. General Melchett sends Blackadder in on Operation Winkle - to winkle out the spy. But instead of interrogating the patient who has a suspiciously strong German accent, Blackadder spends his three weeks away from the trench getting to know Nurse Mary.
Goodbyeee
The time has come for the Big Push and Blackadder is all out of cunning plans. In desperation, he puts his underpants on his head, stuffs two pencils up his nose and pretends to be mad. ‘I’ll show them what totally bonkaroonie means,’ he declares. Will this succeed in getting Blackadder invalided back to Blighty or will he end up going over the top?
Announcing the cast...
Nick Brook - Blackadder
Scott Anderson - Baldrick
Warwick Taylor - Captain Darling
Hayden Mcleary - Melchett
Kurtis Barlow - George
Aaron McKechie - Flashheart and Haig
Camille McAtamney - Nurse Mary and Von Gerhardt
Suzanne Schofield - Smith and The Red Baron
Dahlia Anderson - Bob and Soldier in air training