AHOY, the infamous five are back for their third pantomime at the Grand Opera House - Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse - launched by dame Berwick Kaler and co.
Joining Berwick, 76, at Wednesday afternoon’s launch at the Cumberland Street theatre were perennial sidekick Martin Barrass, villainous David Leonard, golden principal gal Suzy Cooper and luvverly Brummie AJ Powell.
“I’m blaming Martin Dodd,” joked Berwick, attributing his choice of pantomime to the managing director of UK Productions, the nationwide pantomime chain that will be producing the Grand Opera House show for a second time.
“He caught me off-guard, which made me say ‘I’d like to do something a bit different this year’, and somehow that became Robinson Crusoe! But I’ve no regrets about taking it on. It’s a challenge, and fortunately I’m still up for it.”
From Dick Whittington to Dick Turpin, The York Family Robinson to last winter’s The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose, dame Berwick has done them all in five decades of pantomimes, but Robinson Crusoe is breaking new ground. “I’ve re-read the story and when I was going through some old VHS tapes, I found the old Peter O’Toole film, which I’ve now watched.”
What can we expect? The answer is Berwick’s take on the Daniel Defoe story of “the sailor from York who finds himself marooned on a desert island…but he’s not alone”.
“We only know that Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked, not how his story began or how he got to the island,” says Berwick, which gives him an open invitation to let his imagination run riot as writer and director.
Only AJ knows his character name so far. “I’ll be playing Luvverly Jubberly, which Berwick told me just before the press launch,” he says.
“I don’t yet know who I’ll be playing, but I don’t think I’m playing the fairy,” says Suzy. Definitely she, David and Martin will be taking on familiar roles within the Robinson Crusoe framework.
“We often find people don’t care what the show title is; they just want to come and see us as they always have,” says Martin.
“People will say to us, ‘we’ve booked for such and such a night’, and then they’ll say, ‘by the way, what’s the title?’.”
Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse will run from December 9 to January 6 2023; tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/York.
A full interview with Berwick Kaler and co will appear in Friday’s edition of The Press, York.
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