Treasure Island The Pantomime

For the first time, Hayling Musical Society and HIADS (Hayling Island Amateur Dramatic Society) have joined forces to present the island’s annual panto, Treasure Island, at HIADS’ comfortable Station Theatre. This cross-pollination has produced the most delicious fruit. From the moment the curtain opened, we knew we were in for a great evening with this colourful, big, and bouncy production that was positively brimming with energy.

Director James Wood and MD and Choreographer Zoe Fisher have pulled off a real humdinger of a show that had the audience dancing in the aisles. An excellent script (by Ben Crocker), strong direction, great music, well executed choreography, bright and colourful costumes, good set and lighting, and a stage bursting with people all added up to a most memorable evening.

The story, based rather loosely on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, sees a band of rough pirates defeated and civilised by the local Women’s Institute, as they search for the hidden treasure. It includes all the panto favourites: a slapstick cake icing scene, men dressed as women, women dressed as men, lots of corny old jokes (with a few more racy ones thrown in for the adults), “it’s behind you”, community singing and, best of all, a water pistol fight resulting in some rather damp audience members!

Gary Doe as Mrs Hawkins made a pleasingly gentle Dame, very adept at interacting with the audience. Becky Weaving and Holly Fisher worked well together as the principal boy and girl (Jim Hawkins and Jenny Trelawney), making their relationship quite believable, and David Ellis gave Squire Trelawney plenty of spirit in his eternal quest for spotted dick and cake.

Rob McGough made a great baddie – Long John Silver – leading his trio of rough pirates with great names: Liam Peters (Blood Boiler), Simon Cundick (Gizzard Slitter) and Jack Smith (The Fridge). They each made the parts their own with great characterisation, and it was hard to believe that this was Liam’s first time acting. Kate Burrows was marvellous as Long John’s parrot, Polly, with a wonderful costume, colourful makeup and great attitude. Courtney Elkins and Lauren Elkins worked well together as Seadog Sam and Seaweed Willy, two daft sailors, the “broker’s men” of the piece.

Determined to do something a bit naughty for once, the local WI members enlist as pirates, lead by the redoubtable Mrs Henderson – a very strong performance by Rebecca Catchpowle. Each WI member had their own character with Chloe Herne as Mrs Parker and Pam Day as Doris particularly shining. I must also mention Carl Wood – great as Ben Gunn when he is eventually discovered on his desert island.

Singing throughout was to a good standard, the recorded music was well-chosen and a good balance was achieved on the sound system by Phil Hanley, who also added some great sound effects. Dancing and movement were inventive, especially given the limited space available, and well executed. Best of all, a terrific pace was maintained throughout the show and we were never left thinking “what’s next?”

Changes to the colourful set were very slick, thanks to SM Malcolm Bain and his crew. Costumes were well chosen, bright and colourful (Sue Finn and her team). The lighting was well designed too (Ian Pratt), enhancing each scene.

When I left the theatre, I felt exhausted from all the laughter but thinking that if this is what two groups with complimentary skills can achieve by working together, we must have more of it! Huge WELL DONE to everyone involved.

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