Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall

Synopsis

This epic Everyman’s odyssey through World War Two, with a cast of extraordinary characters, charts Gunner Milligan’s progress from joining the Royal Artillery through the North African and Italian campaigns. And with Spike’s sense of lunacy, anything can happen along the way! High comedy and tragedy collide, as we follow him and his ad hoc jazz quartet - complete with their famed comedy routines - adrift on the tide of great historic events. Using Milligan’s own words, the story is told through a joyous fusion of comedy, jazz, song and dance - showing how humour, music and comradeship enabled a hapless and disparate bunch of young men to prevail against the might of the Nazi War Machine. Caution: Contains barrack room humour!

Our Review:

7 April 2010

Theatregoers familiar with the work, but not the life, of Spike Milligan may find a number of surprises in this adaptation of his wartime memoirs. Like many of his contemporaries Milligan honed his entertainment skills performing in army revues. It seems strange, however, that someone famous for his anarchic humour should start his career as part of a disciplined jazz quartet.

Without making obvious comparisons director Tim Carroll and his co-writer Ben Power draw out how Milligan’s experiences in the Royal Artillery’s North African and Italian campaigns shaped his irreverent attitude to those in authority and so influenced the creation of such masterpieces as the Goon Show.
 
The writers have, however, set themselves the difficult task of treating with respect someone who made irreverence his trademark. They have gone so far as to reproduce verbatim many of the tales from the books. The play is structure...

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