Treasure Island

Well this is a first, I can’t remember ever seeing Treasure Island done as a pantomime before? So well done LBDG for venturing into this territory. So, Jim Fowler script in hand we set sail on the Hispaniola for a deserted island somewhere in the Southern Ocean.

Directed and produced by Caroline Page this romp though the south seas to find the hidden treasure was good fun, with some great characterisations of the well-known Robert Louis Stevenson protagonists, with a few others thrown in for comic effect. We started in the Admiral Benbow owned by our panto Dame, Hetty Hawkins where Jim and company come into the possession of the treasure map and set sail with a cast of misfits and unlikely shipmates.

The set by Mike Ward, Colin Delamore and Phil Pope was mostly to some rather well-chosen backcloths, which on the Library Theatre very large stage looked pretty spectacular, from the Admiral Benbow to the 3 masted Hispaniola to the island itself. A well-constructed bar in The Benbow offset it very well, and the bow of the boat coming on stage left did the same for the Island scene. Simple but effective settings and lit up by Dave Miles lighting design definitely made you want to be on a sandy beach on a tropical island somewhere. Scene changes were impressively fast and slick.

Sound by Aaron Gauntlett was crystal and was never an issue even for my aging ears!

Costumes by Sheena Ward were very appropriate for each character with of course the usual array of outrageous outfits for the Dame, including pantaloons for the island scene, I guess the dresses might have got a bit damp!

The choreography by Donna Jackson in this show was spectacular and particularly well drilled with some quite fast numbers. Outstanding job!

The live band under the direction of Paul Daggett on Keys with Pete Bellamy on Bass, Luke Elwood on Guitar and Joe Kaye on Drums. Always good to see a live band especially when one of them dresses in pirate headscarf and eye patch and waving a large sword takes it upon himself to warm up the audience! Excellent stuff. Aye me hearties!

John Stone was our Dame, Hetty Hawkins causing havoc and mayhem throughout with the usual over the top antics. Her son Jim was very well played by Siân Treacy, and the nearest we get to a love interest is Jim’s hankering after Sandwich Susie, played by Alison Bayliss-Hardy, who also provided the memorable catch phrase of this show, ‘Baps and Wraps,’ as she insisted on calling her sandwiches with a little flick of her hips!
Hannah Rourke was a very elegant Squire Trelawney.

The villains, of which there were plenty were headed up by Black Dog played by Russell Bennett in full pirate accent and accompanied by his two sidekick Pirates, Abiodun Oduyemi and Colin Aldous. And making up the rest to this motley crew of cutlass welding cut-throats we had Heather Brodie-Shaw, Jan Murray, Tara Pathirana and Lorna Daggett.

But the scene stealer was definitely the brilliant Charles Merritt, memorable for his Mad Hatter in last year’s Alice in Wonderland, doing a perfect Johnny Depp impersonation as Captain Jack Swallow. His running on and off the stage whilst ‘riding’ the Emu was absolutely hilarious. Brilliant touch on the final curtain call when we were left with the Emu’s head poking out.

The two gormless button’s characters who also contributed greatly to the comedy were Roger and Dodger played by Louis Fordham and Abby Clark, Loved the light-up head gear, it certainly made them stand out.

Other amusing characters included Lois Wright as Long John Sillier, Phillip Ring as A very hairy Ben Gunn and Mark Croft as Blind Pew who (spoiler alert) turned out to be a bit of spy for the government in search of the due taxes on the treasure! Spoil sport!

All in all, this was good fun. Unfortunately, we had to see the Saturday 11am performance which was about half full and mostly comprised of the younger age pantomime fans, so a lot of the ‘double entendres’ went over their heads and fell on stony ground, which I suspect would not have been the case in the evening.

So, well done to Caroline Page, her cast and crew. Always look forward to coming to the Library Theatre.

And finally, many thanks to Ben, who looked after us royally. Hospitality at LBDG is always top draw!

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