21 December 2009
HO ho ho me hearties - the Company of Ten has a cracking Christmas show on at the Abbey Theatre this year. Without being too censorious, the Company of Ten Christmas show can sometimes be a bit hit and miss - it has the perennial problem of being up against panto and trying to be different.
But this year the drama group has absolutely hit the nail on the head with an adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island by Phil Willmott.
Okay, it is not a specifically Christmas show but for sheer entertainment value it is magical and undoubtedly the best Christmas show the Company of Ten has put on since Wind in the Willows some years ago.
What makes this show different I think is the high-calibre cast. Director David Stone must be a popular man to have persuaded some of the Company of Ten's best performers to take part.
They include John Pyke, whose facial expressions alone are enough to draw laughs. as Captain Obadiah Smollett, the captain of the Hispaniola, Dewi Williams as Blind Pugh and Gentleman Jack, Will Franklin in several roles including the cheese-loving Ben Gunn and Jacqui Golding as Shoreditch Sal. Kieran Cummins, who has a look of Manchester United legend Roy Keane when he snarls, is a brilliant Long John Silver - although his leg must have been numb by the end of the play. And Brian Stewart as Billy Bones/George Merry demonstrates yet again why he has been illuminating the local stage for the past year.
Every member of the cast, from Chloe-Jane Dyson as Jim Hawkins to Alison Muir as Lady Jacqueline Trelawny, is impressive and the show is great fun.
It has a highly-amusing dance sequence involving cheese, plenty of swash and buckle and the transformation of The Shipwright's Arms into the good ship Hispaniola is a credit to both the set design and construction teams.
David Stone, whose wife Angela, operated Captain Flint the parrot very effectively, is entitled to take a very well-deserved bow for a production which deserves to be played at a packed Abbey Theatre before it finishes on January 2.
Tickets are obtainable from the Box Office 01727 857861 or the theatre website www.abbeytheatre.org.uk
Madeleine Burton
© Herts Advertiser 2009. Reproduced by permission