Treasure Island

St Cuthbert’s Church in Sprowston is a beautiful venue, and as I arrived for Sprowston Players’ matinee and penultimate performance of their annual panto, it was good to see a full house. The stage must be set in such a way that there is a very wide stage on which to perform, but with less depth and extremely limited wing space. With very high ceilings, this also makes getting the light and sound with a backing track against the performer’s mics not an easy task, but all was good, well done to all the production and technical team under Ashley Smith.

This panto had a particularly good and hilarious script written by Ben Crocker, which somehow manages to merge a bunch of Pirates looking for treasure with the local Smuggler’s Cove Women’s Institute! Costumes were good, especially that of “Polly,” the parrot played by Co-Director Izzie Porter, which featured a beak that moved with the speech being delivered. Izzie was wonderfully funny in this role, constantly wanting to sit on Long John Silver’s shoulder, just wanting to be loved but losing it with him in a rage of jealousy and flying off when another parrot appears on his shoulder later in the show.

Opening in the “Admiral Benbow” pub, to a rousing rendition of “Master of The House,” we had a large cast, including 8 as part of a Junior Ensemble, some stepping on stage for the first time. Not to be outdone by anyone, it was heartwarming to see such talent in the making. Here we find Mrs Hawkins (Josh Cook), and her son Jim Hawkins (Charlotte Sprot), down on their luck. Love at first sight as Jim meets Jenny Trelawney (Maisie Double-Cook), daughter of Squire Trelawney (Gavin Kemp). All four were excellent in these roles, with Gavin adding a touch of Harry Enfield to his character, and there were some nice vocals from Charlotte and Maisie. As the dame of the panto, Josh was funny with some good references to local matters. A special mention to Sophia Hancock as “Billy Bones” -the character was only on stage for a brief period of time in the opening scene, but Sophia made the most of it with a very funny characterisation and “death” as Billy receives the dreaded “black spot”. As Flotsam and Jetsam, Lynsey Evans and Izzy Marrison were particularly good as Long John Silver’s “Henchmen.”

The four pirates of this piece, led by Long John Silver (Ciaran Fallon), were outstanding, and their on-stage chemistry was a joy to watch. All trying to be fierce and fearless, but softies underneath, they were brilliantly played. With the wonderful names of “Blood Boiler” (Mark Ward), "Gizzard Slitter" (Mark Chapman), and "Hugh Janus" (Luke Fairweather), the scene where they more than met their match with the Smuggler’s Cove Women’s Institute, who had been commandeered to join the ship as Pirates in search of the treasure, was a treasure in itself!  Long John Silver sends the Trelawny and Hawkins family to walk the plank, only to be directed by leader of the WI Mrs Henderson (Becky Harris-Cook), to firstly conduct a risk assessment because of the possible dangers. In the end, Silver backs down and sends them off in a safer manner, i.e. a boat. A comedy gold moment. Ciaran Fallon was incredibly good as Long John Silver, he had a touch of the Dick Dastardy in his character, always trying to be evil but life’s realities thwarting him at every turn-and he really did love Polly his parrot after all, a lovely moment when he thought Polly was gone forever.

The WI members of the cast were hilarious, excited to be doing something different than baking cakes (but brought some along for the voyage anyway!)

A brilliant panto, I had a lovely time, well done to Directors Carol Rowell and Izzie Porter, thank you to all at Sprowston Parish Players.

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