Review – Ada & Elsie: Wacko-the-Diddle-oh!

Women on the radio – gasp! Everyone knows that women aren’t funny. Well, everyone in the 1940s knew that women aren’t funny, not until Ada and Elsie set them right. In the fantastically appropriate art deco Capri theatre, Carole Yelland and Maureen Sherlock take us back to golden era of radio, to tell the real-life story of trailblazers Dorothy Foster and Rita Pauncefort, better known as Ada and Elsie.

Sherlock’s play reveals the world behind the microphone, with all the on air and off air drama and antics of one of Australia’s favourite wireless duos. The pair were banned by the Postmaster General for indecency, which gives an indication of what to expect from the show itself. But Sherlock and Yelland are charming in their delivery, with all the class and sophistimication of a pair of old fashioned girls.

The humour that is not innuendo is targeted at that particular demographic who would have heard the original broadcasts, and jokes that belong in the 40s zeitgeist may be missed by younger audiences. But don’t let that put you off. Imagine your grandmother telling you she dated a navy officer who was a seaman dispatcher, or that she is going to be ejaculated from a party. The wide eyed innocence of Sherlock and Yelland in their delivery of sometimes quite vulgar innuendo is both charming and hilarious. It’s the awkward yet adorable conversation you have with your grandparents at the moment that you realise that sex existed before the 1960s. And Malcolm Hansford, as Jack Davey, the king of radio, keeps the laughs innocent and fresh with his sound booth and wacky Dick Van Dyke-esque goofiness.

For those of us not familiar with the Wacko-the-diddle-oh-ness of it all, may find the structure of behind-the-scenes-drama, radio play, behind-the scenes-drama, radio play a smite repetitive, and that by their fourth rendition, the humour has become a little stale. But at only one hour, the show does just squeeze in at a comfortable pace. For that ‘particular demographic’ the show was very well received. They cheered and sang and whistled, and in the grand and glamorous Capri, one could be forgiven for thinking it was Ada and Elsie back from beyond, for one last reunion.