Treasure Island

Following a warm welcome from Thetford Players Chairperson, Jo Cooper we headed into the Carnegie Rooms not knowing what this Ben Crocker version of Treasure Island would give us. To our surprise it gave us a cross between Treasure Island and Calendar Girls. Pirates clash with the WI, whatever next.

After a rowdy first number we meet Mrs Hawkins, (Adam Bond) who is the Landlady of the Admiral Benbow Public House. This is where Adam is most comfortable in front of the audience making them laugh, insulting them and using his excellent singing voice. Mrs Hawkins has a son Jim, (James Trayton) who, not only sings well but accompanies himself on the guitar. One of the shortest-lived characters is Billy Bones, (Zoran Hanitzsch) who on being presented with the “Black Spot” promptly dies in true panto style. This is how to make a short role memorable.

Another visitor to the pub is the “spotted dick” loving Squire Trelawny (David Williams) and his adventure seeking daughter. David giving us this Mr Pickwick style Squire which he skilfully maintained throughout the performance. His daughter Jennie (Charley Holt), portrayed as a tomboy, made the dancing look easy and sang well as she confidently dealt with her first principal role.

No-one sleeps when Long John Silver, (Will O’Donnell), is on with his booming voice and strong character portrayal he makes everyone in the hall listen to him. He has two sidekicks, Seadog Sam (Rose Ash) and Seaweed Willie, (played at this performance by Charlie Wilson) who provide a lot of the humour in this early part of the show. Playing “the brokers men” type characters is not always easy but they both carried it off well. It is not often that you get someone in a panto that only wants to sit on someone’s shoulder but Polly the Parrot, (Janien Squires), is that person, and what a great job she did. With her many mood changes and never quite deciding which side to be on, you could not help liking her.

At this point everything starts going in a very strange direction as a band of Pirates decide to enter a cake baking competition at the local WI and these two unlikely groups amalgamate to form a new pirate crew. The Pirates have some great names. With Captain Bloodheart, (Liam O’Donnell) we have Blood Boiler, (Stuart Wright), Gizzard Slitter, (Phil Pearson) and The Fridge, (Bradley Keszler) and not one of them would scare anybody. Their counterparts are Mrs Henderson, (Lynne Jeffries), the WI Chair. Mrs Parker, (Emma Kelly), WI Vice Chair and Miss Doris Normington, (Maggie Williams) and at least six others. The inter play between these groups add some good comedy moments, particularly in Act 2. There were some really strong characters in this crew and Doris really lets herself go in one of the dance routines. Finally, Treasure Island would not be complete without Ben Gunn, (Zoran Hanitzsch) and proving his versatility, showed us he could portray a completely different character.

The ensemble, when not being WI members or other pirates, sang and danced well as they coped with some different (in a good way) more rock style music, it was a little loud for me but on changing seats it was much more agreeable.

Director, Caroline Foot, Musical Director, Maddie Stebbings and Choreographer, Amy Lockwood, must be pleased with the results and judging by the audience reaction, a lot of Thetford folk went home happy. Good luck with the rest of the run.

 

 

 

 

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