Review by Steve Bennett

A tour-de-force performance by Jamie Rees captures the complex eccentricities of a comedy hero in this affectionate one-man portrait of Carry On star Charles Hawtrey.

Of all the larger-than-life stalwarts of the enduring movie franchise, Kenneth Williams is the one whose life has most often been raked over, thanks largely to the source material in his extraordinary frank and acidic diaries. But Hawtrey is no less fascinating a character – a notorious drinker, tightwad, flaming queen and mummy’s boy.

Oh, Hello is a monologue, delivered as if the audience were confidants who had popped round for a snifter; full of witty, waspish anecdotes from on and off the set. Rees delivers a compelling performance, accurate in its mimicry of this fey, well-spoken actor, but also giving a measure of a man driven by pride, vanity and the desire to be loved – character faults which adds to the tragedy as his fame fades. And it’s not just Hawtrey, Rees does passable impressions of the likes of Williams and Sid James, too, as they pop up in anecdotes.

The tone of Dave Ainsworth’s piece, from the Torch Theatre Company of Milford Haven, is sentimental, but not mawkish, not shying away from Hawtrey’s less endearing qualities, many of which came out when under the influence. Rees starts the play as an amusing stage drunk, but Hawtrey clearly had a mean streak, too, not to mention a vulnerability.

The script charts his life from the early 1960s – when he’d just finished filming Carry On Regardless – until his final years; and throughout he is portrayed as being obsessed by his billing on the posters. What seems like pettiness echoes through his obsession with how he was perceived, especially when facing the dawning realisation that not only was he heading for lonely dotage, but the public were seeing him as old, too. It came to a head with pictures that were splashed across the tabloids of him being rescued from a house fire, half-naked, sans toupee and clutching his fags.

To assert his comedy and thespian credentials, Hawtrey – in this stage incarnation at least –frequently reminds everyone: ’I’ve worked with Will Hay. And been directed by Alfred Hitchcock.’ A boast that becomes increasingly hollow as memories of the older comedian fade. Maybe this one-man play will keep Hawtrey’s flame alive a little longer.

Review date: 29 Aug 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Assembly Hall