Kidnapped At Christmas
by Willis Hall

Reviewed by Diana Eccleston for The Croydon Advertiser

The run-up to Easter is an odd time to put on a play with a title like this one, but panto-style productions can be fun at any time of year if they’re done well.

Willis Hall’s script is a bit limp and the addition of some music here and there would have helped the show along as it sometimes felt thin on the ground with so few in the cast.

As it was, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s success relied very heavily on its leading performers.

Richard Lloyd and Chris Blakeney were a great double act as the dopey prisoners who decide to make a break for freedom on Christmas Eve and end up adopting a variety of transparent disguises before finally being returned to their cell.

They encouraged as much audience participation as they could from the quiet Sunday afternoon attendance I was part of, as did Bruce Montgomery as the belligerent DC who is on their case.

He had a relaxed rapport with the audience during his various ‘interrogations’.

John East and Steve Jacobs were the two warders as daft as the convicts and Rosemary Martin was intimidatingly forceful as the headmistress in Frankenstein fancy dress. There were several set changes, with the prison cell and its vile toilet especially well designed.