Pantomime Aimed At Adults

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31863, 16 December 1968, Page 16

Pantomime Aimed At Adults

“All Papa” by Eve Hughes Produced by Peter Gibb for the Sumner Community Centre Drama Group. Community Centre Hall, Sumner. Season lasts until Tuesday. Running time 8 p.m. until 9.40 p.m. This is not a children's pantomime, in spite of the colourful costumes and the constant procession of farcical characters. Because sexual innuendo dominates the dialogue and matrimonial skirmishing dictates the story line, the production is presumably meant as adult fare. A New Zealand matriarch [goes to an Arabian harem to find her husband, who has outIdone Ulysses in delaying his ■ triumphant return from the wars by some 20 years. : Ngaire Tonkin shows shrewish i verve as the searching wife and manages en route some i nice satiric digs at the self-1 sufficient, managing New Zea-i land woman. As the shaking i Sheik, Roy Tucker begins at ; times to develop the possibili- i ties of an erring husband dis- < covered running a run-down i harem.

The plot is updated with the introduction of secret agents (they number from 1001). Ralph Johnson couldn’t help being suave with four such uncovered agents round him—they sounded well, looked well, and moved well. Ali Baba (Robin Quereel ' was an inbred relic of the 1 past, moronic but amiable. ! who takes his voluptuous girlfriend (Jan Davis) on sand-castle-building expeditions, and so stumbles not only with his words but upon robber’s caves, oil fields, and the rocky road of love. Of the robbers, Mary Smith showed ability as a comedienne. The patter songs are quite witty in an obvious way, but lose effectiveness with their recorded piano accompani ment. A mechanical production doesn’t really flatter the mediocre talent of the performers, and although Eve Hughes ■hows her usual skill in engineering comic situations, there is little charm or festive camaraderie to tempt the audience to become involved —P.R.S.