RBL Theatre Players present
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
By Chris Elliott……
In life there are many challenges that are enjoyable and I was recently asked by the RBL Theatre Players if I would help them by recording this year’s pantomime “Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves” in the beautiful theatre at Le Chateau Lambousa Hotel in Lapta.
Recording and making videos takes a lot of time and this past week pressures were such, that I had to do the recording in two sessions, On Wednesday I went along in the evening to the dress rehearsal and set up my camera with a small but very enthusiastic audience to watch the show and we were not disappointed.
Over the years I have been to this hotel and seen a few pantomimes and this time I was watching it from a different perspective but still found it to be funny and entertaining and can only wonder at how the cast can learn their lines so well to the point I don’t recall seeing any prompts, unlike today’s news readers on television watching their rolling speeches on screens so intently. Well done ladies and gentlemen you are real stars.
Returning on Friday morning at the hotel I found a number of coaches from the English School of Kyrenia in the car park which promised fun ahead and when I went into the the theatre I was amazed to find it full and the children were quickly hushed by the lowering of the lights and the sound of eastern music and a booming voice. So on with the show and if it were only possible to put into a few words what I experienced it would be good but would not give you, the readers, a real sense of this fabulous event so I decided to upload into a video some of the highlights of the show as you will see in the video below.
From this you will see the brilliant scenery and costumes which were just breathtaking and what with the lighting, sound, production and all the other aspects of staging a show like this the least I can say is a big thank to Mark Lake, the actors and actresses and all of the other members of the group and my words of thanks pale into insignificance when seeing the reaction of the children to this wonderful show.
Having made a full recording of this show it gave me great pleasure to donate this to the Royal British Legion, Kyrenia Branch on two DVD’s and if any readers would like copies perhaps they would like to contact RBL and make a donation to the Poppy Appeal in exchange for a copy of this wonderful show on DVD’s
I understand from RBL Chairman, Brian Thomas BEM, who also played the part of Ali B Jnr in the show, that they made in excess of 17,000TL for the Royal British Legion, Poppy Appeal from the proceeds of the pantomime.
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This video is a short version and the full show can be obtained on two DVD’s from RBL Kyrenia Branch in exchange for a donation to the Poppy Appeal
