1001 Arabian Nights And A Matinee

I went along to see the production on behalf of Stuart the regional rep, and what a good evening it was.

The cast worked well together, the production was very colourful, with some lovely costumes including the band, with good choice of songs that worked well with the script. The story was good and easy to follow with a good range of characters.

Being a small church hall with a small stage it’s always difficult to have lots of scenery so just a few bits worked very well, I especially like the way the side flat turned into the cave entrance simple but very effective. Other cast entrances through the audience as though they had been travelling for miles also was good.

Traditionally the part of the dame is a man, but Rita McDermott played Dame Barber with great gusto so why not, ladies?  It worked.  Her two sons Ali Barber Jr (Leesa Agar) and Singbad (Nathan East) played their parts well, and the girls playing Princess Jasmina (Becky North) & Princess Bob (Adele Buxton) did a very good job as royal princess with Adele being in disguise at times as Bob so he could blend in around the market place.

The Grand Vizier (Peter Ansell) was suitably bad and his evil side-kick Fateen (Harriet Cairnes) got the audience booing in all the right places, the Genie (Christine Hughes) helped to save the day, and the place guards Achmed & Ackeem (Fraya & Steven Reynolds) gave us a few laughs.  Ali Barber Senior (Angela Hunt) & the Palace Adviser (Langdon Rowe), and the rest of the chorus all added to the plot.

The story its self was beautiful told to us by Alla Mills who looked and spoke the part in a wonderful golden costume.

They say you should not work with animals well yes Humpy the camel stole the show on several occasions, so I have to give a special mention to AJ Bessant & Max Silver.

All in all we had a nice evening and enjoyed the show. I hope the rest of the week went as well. Thank you for making us very welcome.

Marie Coltman
Membership Secretary South East NODA   

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.