The Stage

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Published Monday 14 December 2009 at 13:15 by Jeremy Brien

In recent years, the Tobacco Factory’s Christmas shows have carried expectations akin to the theatre’s annual Shakespearean season for being among the highlights of the Bristol entertainment calendar. This second co-production with acclaimed Bristol children’s company Travelling Light is as delightful as anything that has gone before.

Even allowing for the recession, director Sally Cookson and her creative team faced a unique dilemma with this famous Arabian folk tale borrowed from The Thousand and One Nights - how to stretch five performers into forty thieves. Their secret is to spark a large helping of imagination on both sides of the footlights, by handing over the roles to four menacing leather-clad actors alongside 36 butch model Action Men with names likes Julian and Andrew.

This is just one of a number of irreverent touches - one of Ali’s two disobedient donkeys is called BOGOF and the cave of jewels is packed into suitcases - in a production that is full of Eastern promise and traditional family story-telling, decorated by Benji Bower’s attractive original score.

Saikat Ahamed is both likeable and enterprising in the title role, Felix Hayes sends up the Captain of the Thieves something rotten, and everyone else doubles and trebles with huge enthusiasm.