Dazzle
by John Gardiner

Reviewed by Donald Madgwick for The Croydon Advertiser

This starship’s built with enterprise

Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s mission is to boldly take us into realms where no man has been before.

Sponsored by Duotronic household goods, makers of Space-Pak capsules, Captain Sam T Galactic flies us by the seat of our terrestrial pants in Starship Sunburster, overcoming evil Red Star Kommissar Big Olga, getting caught in the slimefield of the Klingon Empire, and straightening out a pack of ’60s greasers before touching down again on terra firma.

It’s all good fun, and a full house at Sunday’s matinee performance gave it the thumbs up.

Director Chris Argles, tongue firmly in cheek, has neatly caught the spirit of parody, and Star Trek will never seem quite the same again.

Hoary old jokes pepper the script (yes, writing pepper), and space age cliches abound. After all, as one of the songs has it, if Dan Dare did it, I bet that they can do it too.

Talking of songs, skill in putting over a number is one of the strongest features of this show. You can’t always hear the words, but MD Mark Taylor provides a swinging sound.

Bruce Montgomery is old Big Ears, Mr Speck, applying Vulcan logic to tasks great and small.

The starship crew work well as a team, with a specially endearing performance by Tim Young as Chief Engineer Mr Paddy, who couldn’t engineer his way out of a paper bag.

Heidi Bush is an amply villainous Big Olga, Mike Brown and Paul M Ford lead the Klingon menace with a flourish, and Rebecca Ford heads the Greasers with a swagger.

Neil Grew is the Homeworld DJ who brings it all together.

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