Treasure Island

The director had worked with the principals to understand their characters which were believable and delivered naturally and the cast brought out all the humour of the script delivering the corny pantomime jokes and innuendos perfectly and engaging the audience to participate in the fun. I liked the balance and interaction between all the different groups, each being given equal importance. Together the director and producer had worked very hard to bring together all the very many elements required to manage a show of this size, as well as being personally involved on-stage and with many of the backstage tasks. They used the stage well to for the action and ensured that there was a lot of good movement and physicality fitting for a pantomime.

The choreography was simple but effective routines that made good use of dance patterns which were very effective. The opening number was full of energy and the whole cast worked brilliantly together. There was a skeleton- ghost dance choreographed to ‘When You’re an Addams’ which was enhanced by the fluorescence on the costumes and UV lighting. The singing coaches had worked with the large cast on the musical numbers so that they confidently performed each song. It is not always easy to sing to a backing track, but they had been well trained so that they were confident coming in at the right time. The solos were sung with good tuning and dynamics and, the big chorus numbers were performed with good volume and great gusto. 

The staging consisting of hand painted sets and back drops was nicely illustrative of the locations of each scene and enhanced by good lighting. The costumes looked authentic and really enhanced the production, the highlight of which was Polly’s parrot costume which was bright and colourful with lots of wonderful feathers.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.