ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES. To 11 January.
Greenwich
ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES
by Jonathan Petherbridge
London Bubble Theatre Company at Greenwich Theatre To 11 January 2003
30,31 December 1,6-8 January 2pm
26-28 December 2-4,9-11 January 2pm & 7pm
Runs 2hr 35min One interval
TICKETS: 020 8858 7755
www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 December
Sand-dance to hilarity in an evening of delicious chaos and camel choreography.If it's Christmas this must be pantomime. It's also high-order physical comedy as the story knocks about the desert somehow hanging together despite its delicious improbability – a virtual plot.
Villainous Major H. Bann (H for hosepipe – you get the level) is corralling the world's water sources: the last cumulo-nimbus bounces over our heads into his Open Sesame desert hide-away. The only bar to his scheme is his burgeoning love for Casbar-keeper Vera.
From the start this Ali Baba plays with the idea of theatre, as a couple of job-seekers turn up at the front curtain, Greenwich Theatre for an employment opportunity. They're taken on as two of the forty thieves – er, security guards. Set to find the other 38 for Major Bann, they bankroll themselves another 19 times, landing in trouble when all 40 have to report for duty. Doubling's an inadequate word for the routine that follows.
When we're slow to join in, Simon Thomson's outrageous Dame – Vera, indeed – reminds us it's panto not Chekhov. Yet the Russian's mentioned with sympathy, not anti-highbrow hostility: this show knows its audience.
Thomson enjoys playing hopscotch across the border between reality and the land of supposedly suspended disbelief. When an excellent child volunteer takes her time he tries to move things on, then swivels suddenly with the admirable likes of, 'No. Panto's for you, not for me. Carry on'.
Dragging the opposite way cross-gender Noma Dumezweni's villainous cloud collector is a convincing bogus man – comically keeping a straight face and one-track, plot-directed mind through the hectic goings on.
This cool, as chaos is provoked all round, is what grabs the funnybone, tickles the ribs and splits the sides. All this in act one, with a momentum maintained later by the likes of Bubble's version of the cooking routine. And the animal life's outstanding: the choreographic camel's a real hero (no wonder the Dance Captain's somewhere under its skin). While the Meerkats popping up through the stage with their plot-resolving song - it's supersonic, meaning we have to join in to make it heard - are so loveable they acquired their own front row audience groupies.
Margo: Eva Alexander
Vivienne: Marva Alexander
Leonard: Amarjit Bassan
Augustus: Simone Clarke/Nicky McGinty
Major Bann: Noma Dumezweni
Ali Baba: Chris Jack
Vera: Simon Thomson
Director: Jonathan Petherbridge
Designer: Janis Hart
Lighting: Flick Ansell
Sound: Colin Compost
Composer/ Lyrics/Musical Director: Chris Larner
Choreographer: Maggie Rawlinson
Dance Captain: Nicky McGinty
2002-12-26 12:53:50