Sinbad And His 8th Voyage

Sinbad and his 8th Voyage                      BASE                      Tuesday 17th February

‘Oh yes I am!’ and indeed I did! That is, I visited the Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton to watch a pantomime in February. Not the usual month for a pantomime but Burton Amateur Stage Entertainers (BASE) pulled out all the stops to create a fun filled evening of family entertainment.

It was great to see an excited audience of adults and children filing into the theatre, glow sticks in hand ready to be entertained. There is a certain expectation when watching a panto and BASE delivered on them all from slap stick comedy to audience participation from an over endowed dame to an evil witch. Throw in a chase scene, a cooking scene and an audience sing-a-long and you have all the ingredients for a good night out.

The costumes and set complimented and enhanced the production. The cast were enthusiastic and eager to be involved in the action. The songs were well known and the children particularly liked the rendition of ‘Let it go’. The principals created their characters well and the storyline was clear.

The scenes and songs often ended rather abruptly and the singing was often in keys that made it difficult for the women especially to sing with any ease. More fluency from scene to scene would have added to the pace of the show and less dialogue delivery ‘out front’ would have helped the interaction between characters.

It was good to see most of the traditional aspects of pantomime being kept alive in this production although I wonder whether some aspects have had their day and now need to be left in the past or updated to suit today’s theatre goers.

Well done to all involved in Sinbad your hard work was certainly appreciated by your opening night audience.

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