75 years of panto fun at Martock

By Sam Allen

If community theatre is about anything, it is about people having fun, and it was quite clear that the good folk of the Martock Players and Pantomime Society were doing just that with their performance of Sinbad the Sailor, their pantomime of choice to celebrate an amazing 75 years. And that enjoyment is infectious as the giggles, tee-hees and guffaws of the audience amply demonstrated.

This was a romp from the Arabian Nights school of panto and it included all the usual pantomime traditions from slapstick and ‘behind you’ sequences to a rather put-upon dame, an evil sorceress, a pair of hapless sidekicks and the wonderfully named Sultan Pepa! Add into the mix a song or two and a large dose of audience interaction and – shazam! – through the wonders of community theatre, a pantomime is born!

Martock Parish Hall is a wonderful venue for village panto and the cleverly-designed stage extensions created a multi-levelled platform on which to perform. We moved from dockside to palace, from palace to ship, from ship to desert island and then we came all the way back – and that was all in the space of one evening! All of it achieved by some beautifully-painted backdrops.

It was a shame that there were no children either in the cast or the audience when we attended on Thursday, the opening night, but with two matinee performances (Saturday and Sunday) I expect the hall was jam-packed with kiddies then. It is a great idea to have two matinees because pantomime is such a great form of family entertainment that is great for the younger kids, Mum and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa too.

It is a tribute to the vocal projection of the players that, despite no amplification, every word was clear and distinct as they reeled off joke after joke from the very funny script by the ever-dependable TLC Creative. In this script we didn't have henchmen. Oh no, in these equal opportunity days we had Persons of Hench! And, as ever in the world of pantomime, the odd local reference didn’t go amiss!

I know Martock Players are keen to get some youngsters on board for future productions and it would be great to see the players of tomorrow coming on board so there is at least another 75 years of panto shenanigans in Martock!