Robinson Crusoe & the Pirates

The Panto opened in traditional style, with good fairy Coral, Spirit of the Sea, appearing from stage right, swiftly followed by her arch-rival Davy Jones. Both performances were suitably larger-than-life, with excellent costumes, wigs and make up. We were swiftly transported to a colourful town in Brazil, and a lively rendition of 'Candy' by a large chorus with a wide age-range. They performed the complex choreography with ease and sang well.

Other Principals made confident and energetic entrances, in particular Nutty Nick, who instantly endeared himself to the audience with a natural, easy-going charm, and some excellent puppetry skills in his handling of Seymour, his dog.  The Dame Margarita's opening song of Copacabana was a great introduction for her, and the comedy duo Skull-Duggery and Cross-Bones made a strong start, with the peg leg and eye patch jokes, which were well timed.

The backcloths, from border Studio, were quite magnificent, and added a great deal to this production visually, enhanced as they were by some good lighting.  Scene changes were carried out quietly and efficiently.

As usual with this group, there was an abundance of well staged and well executed chorus routines, often with 3 different groups on stage at once, each doing their own choreography, for example, in the 'Bon Voyage/There's No Cure Llike Travel' number set at the harbour side. I particularly liked the number 'Sailing for adventure', in which the fight between the pirates and the sailors was staged choreographically. The South American setting for this Pantomime was a good opportunity to include a lot of Latin rhythms in the musical numbers, which added to the energy of the piece. As a nice contrast, there were also some individual ballads and duets.

The slapstick galley scene was well managed, with good timing of flour puffs from the funnel. The sound and lighting effects helped to create a real sense of a storm, and the under-water U-V scene was hugely entertaining. I must mention the huge octopus with moving tentacles, which was simply magnificent.

I liked the way even the smallest children were integrated into the action and their entrances and exits through the auditorium were very disciplined, with them maintaining character the whole time.

Costumes were colourful and well-made, with some lovely Dame's dresses and speciality outfits eg. the shark worn by the Captain after the shipwreck, and Nutty Nick's barrel. I must compliment you on the splendid finale costumes, which reproduced each character's costume, but in the finale colours of green, purple and orange.

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