Lionheart! or The Arabian Knights
About the Production
Are you a sucker for the mysterious orient? Dashing bandits and svelte houris, idyllic oases and teeming souks, hawk-faced magicians, desert-defying caravans, corrupt Grand Viziers, gorgeous palaces, and Ray Harryhausen-style special effects? ‘Lionheart! The Arabian Knights’ is an eastern concoction into which every conceivable Arabian Nights clichĂ© has been stirred, seasoned with a tiny twist of alternative history, and cunningly bound together in a traditional pantomime recipe, featuring lots of familiar ingredients and a dash of local flavour.
As part of his fiendish plot to defeat Richard the Lionheart, the evil Saladin sends his henchmen on a magic carpet to Merrie England, to abduct Richard’s Sweetheart, Thomasina. But Saladin’s bungling agents, Oshgosh and Babu, return instead with Thomasina’s irrepressible auntie, Dame Dollop – who quickly proves that the wicked Caliph has bitten off rather more than he can chew.
Thomasina meanwhile, travelling to join King Richard’s Crusade, encounters the dashing brigand, Hassan the Bandit. Hassan, (who may not be quite what he seems) is no friend to Saladin, and together with Thomasina they set out to rescue Auntie!
With the help of an assortment of genies, assassins, eunuchs, Turkish wrestlers, dancing girls and pantomime camels, Dame Dollop escapes from the harem to outwit Saladin, and allow Richard to recapture the holy city of Jerusalem, and all in time for Christmas Day!
A hilarious, original, and thoroughly entertaining pantomime, guaranteed to transport all involved to the land of the Arabian Nights.
The Cast
Behind the Scenes
Image Gallery
The Reviews
Come with me to the kasbah
A brand new pantomime, Lionheart, made its debut on the festive scene at the weekend. This adventure is set in the days of King Richard’s Crusades to rid the Holy Land of the evil infidel Saladin and is by Theatre Workshop Coulsdon member Richard Lloyd.
It is always exciting to see something new and this show is full of good ideas, though does not always fulfil its potential. It is a mistake to have so much of the action on the floor of the hall as even adults in the audience can only see the actors’ heads. But the biggest disappointment is the Dame; not so much Tim Young’s characterisation but his appearance.
He is rather low key for so important a role and his costumes are nothing short of dowdy. I know Dame Dollop is supposed to live in a hovel in a turnip patch but in panto that’s no excuse! Who wants a dame in a mousey wig and headscarf wearing a drab dress and apron? Not to mention Tim’s beard. Audiences want a gaudy, colourful creature with bright wigs and bizarre frocks. Jollying-up Dane Dollop’s appearance would probably give the actor the confidence to be more extrovert in his portrayal.
Some of the other costumes are very good, with camp genie Alka Seltzer (Bruce Montgomery) and the Grand Vizier (Martin Cole) faring particularly well. Chris Argles certainly gets the plum role as “utter villain” Saladin and lives up to it in every way; a real delight to hiss at. Rebecca Ford gives an assured performance as Hassan, the bandit with curiously gentlemanly manners and accent which are the key to his real identity. She has comic qualities akin to those of the late Joyce Grenfell – and that’s a big compliment.
Also splendid is Lisa Boniface as Tommy, niece of Dame Dollop who has a crush on Richard the Lionheart and sets off to join his Crusade but lands up in Saladin’s dastardly clutches.
Richard Lloyd, who also directs, and Robert Del Toro are palace guards Oshgosh and Babu with accents so string it is not always easy to make out what they are saying. Tatiana Allison as Saladin’s head wife Yasmin, Mike Brown as the eunuch Ibn Dun and Paul M Ford as doped and dopey assassin Ali-Kat fill their supporting roles well.
And I must mention Donald the pantomime camel…
Diana Eccleston for The Croydon Advertiser
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