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BLUEBEARD
Burley Players
Village Hall
Burley
January 2005

PANTO just wouldn’t be the same without audience participation, and this one had plenty of it, not least from one tiny young lady – surely a future performer, so I hope someone took her name – who almost brought first-night proceedings to a halt with her insistence on telling those on stage what the baddies, Baron Bluebeard and his sidekick, Lurkin (brilliantly played by John West and Jacqui Rhodes), were up to.
Which was, of course, trying to kill off Mr Rockbottom (Wayne Priestley) and his daughter, Ruby (the ever-excellent and rubber-faced Chris Duell), so that the Baron could have his wicked way with Ruby’s pretty sister, Flora (a lovely Emily Savage).
But – naturally - they were thwarted by Flora’s boyfriend, Robin Reliant (15 year old Eleanor Montague-Rendall, bursting with talent and an undoubted future star of the professional stage), and Mr Rockbottom’s servants Fetch and Carrie (Sandy Simpson and Veronica Johnstone). With help of course from Marie, the French maid (another super-talented youngster, 12 year-old Tamar Hudson) and housekeeper Mrs Shivers (Sue Trotter), who was definitely not all she seemed. And with the added ingredients of a fine set, first-class costumes, smashing foot-tapping tunes and a lively chorus, Baron Bluebeard’s castle was quite the place to be.

Linda Kirkman

Courtesy of the Bournemouth Daily Echo


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