Inventive Players’ panto is very funny

THIS was a first for me – I’ve never seen Sinbad the Sailor as pantomime and it was really enjoyable.

A down-on-his-luck and hungry Sinbad (Paul West) has been sentenced to death for pinching Dame Fatima Trollope’s buns (John Staton) - make of that what you will.

He can choose to be boiled in oil or listen to Jedwood – he chooses neither, but to take the Sultan Peppa’s challenge (Joseph Hughes) to search the seven seas for kidnapped daughter Princess Yasmin – missing for years. On the journey he takes not only the Dame but sailors Umpah Merrilee (Janet Denning) and Mustapha Zickbag (Sam Kneeshaw). There’s also brilliant Baddie Zanzibar (Peter Staton) and REALLY big guy Abu (James Suther), plus Cubbington’s finest next generation actors learning their trade.

What made the storytelling so enjoyable were the wonderfully inventive touches. There was the traditional ‘oh no he isn’t ‘ malarkey but an example was the scene where the actors charging back and forth across the stage make us feel as though it’s a storm at sea. My favourite bit was where the pirates have taken most of the crew and only Umpah and Mustapha are left. Umpah sings a song about facing trouble alone with no one to help while Mustapha tries to remind him he’s there too. Gradually the rest of the cast, the prompt, the director – everybody involved – is on the stage singing along – very funny!

Star of the show for me was Pirate Polly (Sophie Wynne), whose presence on the stage was always captivating and assured.

Jane Howard