Maltings pantomime 2024 review: Panto Ahoy! Sinbad set to be a sail-away hit

Whether you are travelling by land, air or, most appropriately, sea, The Adventures of Sinbad is guaranteed to shiver your timbers in the most delightful way.

This true family panto whisks merrily along. It is full sail ahead from the moment Ben Fairley (Sinbad) and Chloe Millar (Ruthless Ruby) step on stage, attended by their youthful and energetic squad of Seaweed Skippers (Team Fish at our performance).

Need a couple of hours’ high-octane entertainment? The Maltings’ panto has your back – not even the youngest visitors will get restless.

The story is tenuous but a hoot and is accompanied by superb stage sets from Jimmy Manningham, Marc Inglis and Chris Caput, including a Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl-alike ship, a gaudy gold-throned island and a Bond villain-esque control room.

Sinbad and Ruby must solve the mystery of missing Princess Shelly Periwinkle (Charlotte Summers) and her coveted treasure chest, aided by sea-faring tourist Jane McDonut (Emma Boyd) and (mildly) hampered by Pirate Moloko (Wendy Payn – who wrote and directed too – no mean feat).

Princess Shelly and Cyril Prawn (John Stenhouse) are unwitting island captives (she was a baby when their ship was wrecked and he took a memory-erasing head bump) of villainous Captain Cornelius Crabclaw (Ross Graham) while he tries to solve the riddle of the locked treasure chest.

Panto is about the music, the moves, the groany jokes and the general silliness and slapstick – all very present and correct in The Adventures of Sinbad.

Most importantly, this cast had the audience eating from their collective hand – a masterstroke getting us on our feet in the first half (as well as for the obligatory competitive singalong in the second). The catcalls, shouting and laughter increased from that point.

The show has some great short, sharp riffs on well-known songs, adapted and choreographed wittily to fit the action – including ‘Don’t go to the Lagoon-o’ (Encanto’s ‘We don’t talk about Bruno’) and ‘A pirate called Maloko’ (Living la vida loca).

You would never know this was Ben’s first panto outing – he was amiable Sinbad to the bones, offset to a tee by Chloe’s Ruthless Ruby’s zany zeal for adventure. And they can both bust moves and belt tunes.

No danger of missing the classic panto dame with Emma Boyd on board – her larger-than-life presence and timing are impeccable. Lines such as ‘adventure ahead, avast behind’ and ‘my chakras are fair chafing’ were in safe hands.

Hats off to seamstress Sarah Graham – those costumes were oh, so fine and fun. Ross Graham camped up the bonkers baddie brilliantly and John Stenhouse is a reliable dazed-and-confused sidekick.

Shelly is a radiant vessel for Charlotte Summers’ first outing as a panto princess – in fact, I’m worried that Charlotte’s face will ache from all the smiling! Shout out to puppet Gordon the Gorilla – his approximated Yorkshire accent and louche limbs were hilarious.

In the end, unison was the message – and outcome – of this panto. And the key to the puzzle was, of course, hiding in plain sight, much to the delight of the audience who appeared united in their enjoyment of a rollicking afternoon’s entertainment.

The Adventures of Sinbad runs until December 31. For more information and bookings, call 01289 330999 or go to www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/the-maltings-pantomime-2024-the-adventures-of-sinbad