Skip to main content

Review of Sinbad The Sailor by the Duston Players at Duston Community Centre, Northampton

I am not the biggest fan of pantomimes, however at a request I by chance found myself at Duston Community Centre (a venue I have not been to before) to watch Duston Players (a group I have not seen before) performing Sinbad The Sailor (someone I have not met before).

It was absolutely a great community based amateur production, suitably cheap (even written into the script) with just a great cast of all ages having fun. Through this I managed to avoid the need to worry about much of the pantomime antics going on and in Johnathan Freeth's script there was absolutely every panto requirement inserted (add innuendo here). For my benefit, the tale of Sinbad being transposed into the eighties was perfect as this is very much my era, especially with music. Therefore I got everything from The Final Countdown through to Girls Just Want To Have fun and all the comically named shipmates names (harking back to stars of yesteryear) in between.

Our hero Sinbad was played with relish by James Burgess along with his love interest Princess Poppy (Samantha Leith). They worked great together and I loved their Too Shy performance, and like a few of the songs, anyone who knew the eighties could see the songs coming in the script from a mile away. The setting for our adventures was the Kingdom of Pring-Al-Toob which allowed a plethora of Pringles and crisp based jokes, including the Sultan Vinegar played by David James. Stumbling around near blind constantly grabbing the wrong person gave a great reoccurring joke. Often being grabbed was our resident dame of the show Nursie Nora played with high buxomness by Tim Dwelly, doing and looking everything required of the wanton woman.

The baddies of the piece were the wonderful John Myhill as the brother of the Sultan, Wazir Welhi and Rita Ayers as Tamato The Sorceress. I have seen John a few times now in the Masque productions and he has never disappointed and as I have now discovered he is actually a very good panto baddie as well. Managing to garner the constant boos of the audience and carrying of a rather garish green wig with aplomb. Rita as Tamato was at the offset a baddie, but whether the crowd knew what was coming or not, she didn't elicit the boos of the crowd. They were very much kept for Wazir and quite rightfully.

Great fun was to be had from Wazir's henchmen Hugh (Jonathan Whalley) and Cry (Tina Hartley), although I am not impressed by them making us sing "Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside" quite so many times. Finally a special mention to everyone else involved including the children who without doubt looked like they were enjoying every moment. There were a few obvious stars among them and a few easily distracted, which made the whole afternoon even better.

The script was everything you required of a panto, featuring all that "he's behind you" antics and plenty of innuendo for the adults featuring sextants and poles and for the best part kept everyone interested for its actually quite substantial length. I also absolutely loved the monkey and camel and that end between them was inspired.

So yes I enjoyed it. It was a wonderful afternoon of family entertainment with a somewhat more raucous and distracted crowd than I am accustomed to at the theatre. However this transcended theatre and just became a full flung family piece of chaos and I suppose at the end of the day this is what panto is all about. Perhaps slowly I am beginning to get it. Oh yes I am!

Performance reviewed: Saturday 5th December, 2015 (matinee)

Sinbad The Sailor ran at the Duston Community Centre, Northampton between Wednesday 2nd and Saturday 5th December 2015.
For full details of the Duston Players visit their website at http://www.dustonplayers.org.uk/

Popular posts from this blog

Review of The Jolly Christmas Postman at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The Northampton Royal and Derngate have a tradition of producing a family play in the Royal Theatre alongside a spectacular pantomime in the Derngate, offering a more subtle Christmas treat for a family audience. However, this calendar staple has been missing since 2019, when the fine Pippi Longstocking graced the Royal stage and an unmentionable virus reared its head. Based on this triumphant return this year in the guise of The Jolly Christmas Postman , it has been heartily missed. Adam Peck has truly lovingly adapted  The Jolly Christmas Postman  for the stage from the original story by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. From the beginning, this is a proper cracker of theatre entertainment that captivates an occasionally distractable audience of all ages. The story follows the adventures of a friendly postman beset by an influx of mail on Christmas Eve and his adventures with an assortment of Fairy-Tale characters. What is, in essence, a kid's show aimed primarily at young children ...

Review of Cinderella at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Over the last few years, the annual Royal & Derngate pantomime has been produced by Evolution Productions and from the pen of Paul Hendy. It is safe to say they have been crackers, bringing everything you expect and more from traditional pantomime. This year, they are all back, this time with their take on the very traditional story of Cinderella . So, does the magic dust fall once again successfully on the stage of the Derngate? The answer is yes, as Evolution and Hendy prove they have found the magic formula to create another successful pantomime for Derngate. There are moments this year, though, where it is too clever for its own good, with some exceptionally good jokes lost to the panto audience (yes, I got the Hacker joke, but the tumbleweed reaction suggested it didn't hit the audience present). Cast-wise, it is a solid and assured collection of performers who don't always hit the mark. Joanne Clifton, as the Fairy, is a perfect fit for panto with her infectious smile...

Review of Never Let Me Go at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005  Never Let Me Go is a slightly difficult novel to categorise at times, but most call it a science-fiction speculative piece. With some limited spoilers for those unfamiliar with the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted work, Ishiguro paints a world where people, clones, are created for the benefit of medical science, destined to become donors to rid the world of deaths from solvable diseases for the rich. It is a powerful piece and while it had a successful film version back in 2010, could a stage version, now running at Royal & Derngate, work similarly? The answer to that is yes, and perhaps even better than the film version. The intimate world of the theatre feels like a stronger location for the story to unfold, bringing the piece straight to the audience with no potential interruption or break to the tale. We learn of Kathy, Ruth and Tommy's (the main protagonists) fixed life through their eyes and live their life for the long, but never dr...