Treasure Island, Burneside Amateur Theatrical Society, The Bryce.

Serious business, panto.

Lots of different elements to carefully co-ordinate and bring together without ever letting the audience know that all of these elements have been carefully co-ordinated and brought together.

Fortunately, BATS veteran Gordon Lawson has a wealth of experience to draw on and is adept at orchestrating chaos. His slick and inventive take on Treasure Island went down a storm with the matinee audience at The Bryce.

We were introduced to the story by Ron Milnes’ Billy Skillet narrating Red Rum’s (Sue Cook) story over a projected montage - a clever technique of getting a sense of story over to a young audience without losing them - and before long Adam Carruthers gamely stepped up to the oversize bra of dame: Scantillick Ladd (say it out loud...there you go) and quite literally threw himself into a deceptively difficult role with his madcap, energetic performance, ad libs “Lucky charm” and facial tics.

On principle boy duties, Tracey Howson made a great BATS panto debut with her Jim Ladd bouncing off Jen Armitstead’s Nancy/Fancy. Louise Bell followed up her impressive 1984 BATS debut with a laudable, Captain Smellit and hamming up a scratched finger as the brilliantly named, Doctor Liversausage was Zaeed Mohammed. Helen Townson channelled her inner Mrs Overall with her turn as Brenn Gunn and Martin Cash delved into his expanding bag of bumbling toffs and came up with a purple faced Squire, prone to mood swings, what what.

The always brilliant band of BATS juniors enjoyed their roles as pirates and were ably choreographed in the fun dance routines by Helen Fothergill whose neon UV lit skeleton dance number was particularly effective.

The stand out though was John Dodds in the role of Long John Silver, delivering a performance that was almost too good for pantomime. Garth-ing and argh-ing for all he was worth with pithy come backs to the audiences jeers such as “I’ve had more boos at my AA meetings,” soaring over the heads of the younger audience members, but landing nicely with those accompanying them.

Such is the repeatedly high standard of BATS costumiers Fran Milnes and Liz Archer that their work is often overlooked. Once again their designs (most of which are handmade with only specialist items bought in) made the eyes pop.

It would be remiss not to mention the incredible sets, expertly lit by Joe Hacker, built by the director himself and lovingly painted and dressed by Stewart Williams, Allyson Harkness and Sue Cook. They would not have looked out of place on any West End stage. The attention to detail was extraordinary, in particular the ramshackle Admiral Bimbo Inn which looked like it could have fallen down at any moment and Treasure Island itself, a dense undergrowth coupled with a backlit waterfall projection (courtesy of effects designer, Nigel Crook) which was incredibly striking.

The pace never lagged, even with some tricky scene changes to negotiate, proving once again that BATS not only have a strong team in front of the curtain, but behind it too.

Duncan Cramphorn