Robinson Crusoe

It was lovely to receive a warm welcome to YTC’s second annual pantomime. After their success with Cinderella last year, YCT chose a script from Tom Whalley’s catalogue, “Robinson Crusoe” which took the cast and audience on a swashbuckling adventure to a far off island in search of wooden forks the chip shop and ending in a search for treasure with hilarious consequences along the way.

The opening of the show was set in the port of “Little Widdling by the Sea”, the set had been built by the team and was nicely dressed with fishing net and props. The 3 flats also served as the back drop for the fish shop scene, on board ship scene was a slick change over using balustrades and a ships wheel  and the island scenes used a painted back drop and impressive palm tree. The lighting plot complimented the production throughout and the sound quality was good. Costumes were bright and colourful and depicted the characters well although I did miss a change for the walk down.

The accompaniment in the form of a 5 piece band was excellent, with a good choice of music and great incidentals throughout. Choreography was interesting to watch and well performed, my favourite was “Rhythm of the Night”, everyone looked so happy – a real party number.

The front line of principals included some new faces this year; Isla Baker gave us a sweet “Polly Perkins” with lovely vocals and Chris Barrass portrayed her doting father “Peter Perkins”, the man who actually saves the day! Georgos Marnellos was really good as “Winkle” the hapless sidekick to the despicable “Captain Blacktashe” played with gusto by Lawrence Chadwick; Lawrence gave a solid performance as always and the was the perfect foil for “Calypso” the magical spirit of the sea portrayed by Beth Elvin. Act 2 brought a new character “Madame Friday” played by Emma Thomas who looked great and sang really well. In the title role Charlotte Guest gave a confident performance with good stage presence and super vocals, I particularly enjoyed “It’s Possible” which ended Act 1. The comedy was in the hands of the rest of the hapless Crusoe family, “Captain Crusoe” - Paul Watkis, “Sprat Crusoe” - Stephen Shield and “Dame Crystal Crusoe” -Alex Neal. The three worked hard to keep the laughs going throughout, although pacing slowed in a couple of scenes I put this down to second night “gremlins”. The fish shop "flour" scene with Stephen, Alex and Charlotte was very funny and well received by the audience, everyone loves slapstick mess!  Cameo roles were well played by Paul Lycett, Harry Richie, Caroline Bevan and Payton Cowan who together with the ensemble and the young “Drama Tree” members worked hard throughout, confidently performing all of their numbers and giving great support to the principal line up.

Well done to Linda, David, Rachel and their team for their hard work pulling the show together in what I understand was quite a short rehearsal time. I am really looking forward to seeing you all perform in “Sister Act” in October!

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