The Ghost of Captain Moonfleet

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I arrived at the Thomas Hughes Memorial Hall in Uffington.  Captain Moonfleet?  Never heard of him.  The pieces started to fall into place as soon as I stepped into the foyer, where a piratical character loomed over us even as we bought our bags of popcorn and raffle tickets.  In the main hall, laid out in cabaret style, a selection of nautical tunes boomed out over the sound system.  The details were filled in at the end of the preliminary announcements – that “The Ghost of Captain Moonfleet” was written for The Uffington Players twenty years ago, and that this revival featured several performers from the original production.

In some ways this was a classic community pantomime – the hall was full of friends and family determined to have a good time, the bar was doing a brisk trade (complete with table service!), and the raffle was drawn in the interval.  A small ensemble of schoolchildren was getting a taste of what it’s like to appear on stage, and a few local characters were no doubt living up to their reputations in properly melodramatic style.  This is the very bedrock of amateur theatre, but this production of “The Ghost of Captain Moonfleet” proved to be rather more than that.  The key features of a traditional pantomime were mostly present and correct, and sometimes executed better than in much bigger budget shows, and there were some impressive performances in leading roles.

The characters, although tending towards the two dimensional as is usually the case in pantomime, were well drawn and their dialogue had the ring of authenticity.  The jokes were, perhaps inevitably, of variable quality, and in keeping with a family pantomime there were only occasional moments of mild innuendo.  Some of the references were bang up to date – the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor got a mention despite having only happened earlier that day – and nothing beats a bit of inter-community rivalry such as Roger, in the “Buttons” role, having fun at the expense of neighbouring Shrivenham.

There was plenty of call and response, mostly in the second act, and the triggers for the audience were clear enough for everyone to feel confident joining in.  The choreography was inclusive and accessible enough to allow the company to sing and dance simultaneously, and the nautical, sea shanty-inspired routines were very effective.

I was particularly impressed by the slapstick scene in which the comedy duo was asked to do a bit of redecoration.  My hopes were raised by the tarpaulin on the floor, and our hapless friends were soon up to their elbows in rolls of paper and buckets of paste.  The transparent paste wasn’t very eye-catching, but the practised routines that tended to result in one or other receiving a brushful in the face had been carefully thought through.  The pink paint routine set up the best gag of the night – “He’s overcome by emulsion!”, and there was nothing half-hearted about one of the duo’s dramatic fall through a newly-papered wall.

The whole thing was a lot of fun, and even if the quality was a bit uneven there was a great deal to admire.  I noticed that quite a few of the creatives were in the cast as well, but this core group is certainly ensuring that The Uffington Players punch well above their weight for a relatively small society.  I understand that there’s a fish and chip supper at the Friday and Saturday evening performances, and I am sure that the joint will have been jumping.  An enjoyable slice of British culture, and a pantomime?  What could be better?

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.