Cramond Island the Panto

I was delighted to be invited along to the first ever production by Cramond Drama Group. Only a few months ago a small group of local people sat round a table and decided that they would like to form a community drama group and put on a pantomime. After just a few months of very hard work and commitment, ‘Cramond Island The Panto‘ took to the stage.

This was a traditional family pantomime which appealed to all ages in the audience. The many very young children were enthralled and none of the humour around local issues was missed by the older audience. Before the curtain went up, pirate hats were on sale so that the youngsters could get into the spirit of things and a couple of pirates from the cast interacted with audience members.

All of the ingredients needed for a feel good panto were there in abundance - audience participation, booing and hissing, spontaneous ad.libs, singing, dancing and lots of fun. Simple, well known numbers like ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ and ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ meant that all ages in the audience became involved.

A well written script had the pirates sailing to Cramond Island to look for treasure and involved familiar characters from ‘Treasure Island’ all of whom were larger than life.

Jim Foster was an animated Pantomime Dame, Mrs Hawkins, whose son Jim was played by a most exuberant James O’Neill. A young very talented Oliver Thomson was a most confident and competent Billy Bones & Silly Bones. Freda MacDonell was a grand Narrator and Squire who kept the storyline moving along. Of course panto always has a baddie and Keith Hewitt’s Black Dog deserved the many ‘boos’ thrown at him. Stephen Corrall was a splendid somewhat intimidating Long John Silver. Suzy Fishlock was well cast as Doctor McPepper as was Emma Peveril as Ben Gunn. Yves Foulis was quite charming as both Polly Parrot and Gorilla who were loved by the audience. Linda Clarke oozed style in her role of Brynnley Shears with real personality and attitude.

Ever member of this small cast established their own character and brimmed with confidence and enthusiasm playing their parts and also in the lively, well choreographed dance routines. Costumes and make-up were fantastic and along with a simple but most effective set created a colourful and exciting atmosphere.

This was an excellent, well directed premiere production by this newly formed group which was well received by the audience. All of the costumes, props and scenery were sourced by cast members and a most supportive Cramond Association.

Well done Cramond Drama Group and all involved in making this happen. I hope this will be the first of many productions and I very much look forward to your next venture. I’m sure that there will be many people who will want to be part of your group after such a successful debut. Most enjoyable and great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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