The Adventures of Jason and the Argonauts

Published Monday 10 August 2009 at 13:30 by Barbara Lewis

For a theatre director, the beauty of the Jason and the Argonauts, as of any other myth, is that we know the characters and the broad theme, but not the finer details and, in any case, they are in dispute.

The scope is therefore vast for adding music, spectacle and fun, trashy references and creating the kind of pantomime mix increasingly established as intrinsic to the Steam Industry’s summer family show.

It might take a song or two for the pace to gather and it is at times very silly, but also genuinely funny.

The best of the comedy is generated when an enormous leg dwarfs Jason’s muscular shoulder as he attempts to carry the goddess Hera disguised as a hag (Paddy Crawley).

Crawley earns plenty more laughs when he doubles as the blundering Hercules, who crashes into things, like boats, because he doesn’t know his own strength.

As the pillar of the show, Joe Fredericks’ Jason is versatile and whole-hearted, while his Medea (Siobhan O’Kelly) is suitably feisty and determined.

It’s all every bit as good as - if not better than - a costly West End show and, with no admission fee, a boon to the staycationers.