People’s Theatre Group, Dordogne
Dawn French may be a national treasure, but that doesn’t give her carte blanche to run roughshod over a movie classic.
Taking the Patrick Swayze role, French reinterprets cinematic masterpiece Red Dawn as a semi-autobiographical tale of personal awakening.
Where once there was Colorado, now there is the Dordogne. The Cuban foe have become tax inspectors, and the band of schoolboy partisans, well, just a band of schoolboys.
Despite these changes, French adds nothing new, and the play drags on, offering only meagre morsels to the beleaguered audience. Perhaps, like so many national treasures, it is time Dawn French was consigned to a billionaire’s basement.
