Treasure Island

Attending my first panto of the year, I had the pleasure of attending ODS’s ‘Treasure Island’ to a full house matinee performance, which unsurprisingly was packed by families with youngsters a plenty. After a warm welcome from panto debut director Chris Marsh, and the entrance of the Spirit of the Sea (Nick Brown) the action started with the arrival of the ‘baddie’ Long John Silver, attracting the appropriate verbal response from the audience before a word had even been uttered! Kathy Othen provided a strong character who held together most of the action throughout.

The opening company number, ‘Oom-Pah-Pah’ backed by a well painted bright set, was joined without hesitation by the audience with gusto. (responding to an earlier general invitation from the Director)  Ruth Hammond as Potty Patsy soon entered and quickly established a comical character. Nigel Payne as a typical panto dame, Rosie Bloom, also established  her character with numerous invitations to the audience to call out her ‘large behind’!

Simon Billington, as Squire maximised his role with the clearest of well- spoken diction and his daughter Penny played by Daisy Wood, not surprisingly caught the eye of  Rosie’s son Jim Bloom, brightly played by Alex Fitzgerald. The two main side-kicks of Long John Silver, Blind Ali and Sea Snake Sally, were well played by David Vas (prone to wearing his eye patch over the wrong eye!) and Sophie Williams. Until his early demise, Tom Oliver gave a presence as Billy Barnacle. ‘The Wild Rover’ was a good company number.

Jacci Phillips as Captain Mullet, with great stature, led the ship sent in search of hidden treasure and one of the funniest moments (along with a good sprinkling of corny jokes) was the appearance of the parrot on Long John Silver’s shoulder (Well handled through a gap in the curtain). A good company number ‘Dancing with the Captain’ ( Song and lyrics by Paul Nicholas) closed Act 1.

A few more corny jokes opened up Act 2 well received by the audience and the pirates sang Monty Python’s  ‘Always look on the bright side of life’. Jim and Penny continued to provide an endearing couple and Long John Silver maintained a good level of energy, together with three of his shipmates; Jolly Roger (Dawn Turner), Salty Sam (Becky Weir) and Cut Throat Kate (Gillie Cowley). During the action some pleasant variation was also provided by the dancers from the Kirsty Purvis School of Dance and the Cornish townsfolk and pirates.

When the pirates reached the Island where the treasure was supposed to be they met Barmy Ben who had been left adrift some three years earlier. Hugh Raymer played the role with his usual good level of energy, upset by the many references to cheese, which he had missed most of all!

Chris Marsh had packed in every possible panto tradition into this production including the ‘Whose afraid of the scary ghost’ routine loved by the youngsters in the audience. Time was also made to sing a happy birthday to a couple of youngsters and hold a best-dressed pirate competition, the winner chosen by the audience clapometer … and of course a community song. ODS are to be congratulated once again for their enthusiasm which well and truly rubbed off on the audience.

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