Press Section - click here to download pictures of all the shows

The Ministry Of Entertainment’s Mrs Gerrish’s Guesthouse, returns after a successful run in June.
“It’s always great to have the Ministry Of Entertainment at the Factory; it just brings in an audience that I think are pretty under-served in the theatre world,” Dan says.

“Everybody assumes that getting an older audience is an easy option and is trying to appeal to a young audience. That’s the Arts Council’s emphasis, and it’s absolutely right, but at the same time there’s a huge audience that often gets ignored – and that’s people over 50."

“Ministry Of Entertainment have been championing that cause as well as working with young people, and served that audience well. It’s great having them in the theatre and it’s great when our local audience comes, because they’re not the sort of audience that will necessarily come and see dance or experimental work.”

Dan Danson 
Artistic Director
Tobacco Factory
Bristol Evening Post 14th September 2006

'I find it difficult to book productions that are affordable, accessible, relevant to people's lives, with good production values and which offer an opportunity to see good actors working with a quality script. In Ministry of Entertainment we have found all of those and had a thoroughly enjoyable show. I feel that Doodlebugs and Bogeymen would work well in any of the small/middlescale venues and would be happy to recommend it'

Liz Leyshon, Artistic Director, Strode Theatre

THE STAGE
Bristol Old Vic  February 2003

Doodlebugs and Bogeymen
....built around the experiences of two young evacuees on a West Country farm.

Their first show, Keep Smiling Through, has been touring the region for three years now and writer/director Joe Hobbs and his cast have again researched real people’s wartime recollections to bring the simple tale of two typical evacuees to hilarious and occasionally moving life. This time, though, there is a stronger storyline, as we follow a brother and sister’s escape from the London Blitz to discover rural life for the first time.

There is the added bonus of Harvey and McNab playing the wide-eyed evacuees themselves, Blood-Brothers-style, as well as a wonderful parade of countryside characters, from the prickly schoolmarm to the salt of the earth farmers who open their home and their hearts to the youngsters.

All this is wrapped in some splendid set piece scenes, highlighted by Harvey’s hilariously incompetent village variety show ventriloquist act, with Hitler as his goose-stepping dummy and McNab’s vocal recall of such wartime favourites as A Nightlingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Farmyard hazards, landgirls, daytrips to the seaside and a country vicar add to the humour.

Jeremy Brien

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