Kidnapped At Christmas
About the Production
Christmas Eve. And banged up again are the gormless Crosby and Gilbert, two life-long criminals who are bemoaning their fate in the nick. Tomorrow will be the regulation prison Christmas dinner, greasy chicken, clammy sprouts and lumpy potatoes. The thought is too much to bear, they must escape! And with the aid of the audience, a spider and some not very bright prison warders, escape they do.
However, that’s just the start of their adventures. When they break into a house to escape the awful weather, they think they’ve lucked in, but actually it’s the home of Detective Constable Grummett, the man who’s been tasked with recapturing them. Worse, Grummett’s son Alexander is there and he’s not frightened of them one bit. Even worser, he’s got a gun. Worstest yet, when the lights go out suddenly, young Alex has been kidnapped, and guess who are the prime suspects?
A fast-paced and silly family entertainment with bucketloads of broken fourth wall and audience participation, follow Crosby and Gilbert’s misadventures as they become Olympic athletes, take on the horror of Frankenstein’s monster and even solve a crime! Yes, really!
And do they get a decent Christmas dinner? That would be telling.
The Cast
Behind the Scenes
Image Gallery
The Reviews
Awarded Three Stars
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.
Diana Ecclestone for The Croydon Advertiser, Friday March 30 2007
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