Sailor Beware

Review

BELL-bottoms and romance graced the stage of the Palace Theatre last tveek and left the audience giggling in their seats.

Set in the late 1950s, Sailor Beware tells the tale of the forthcoming marriage between seaman Albert Tuffnall (Jonathon Prior) and Shirley Hornett (Denise Bishop).

he cast invited the crowd into a cosy front room the night before the ceremony when everybody's nerves are running on edge. We are also invited to see the trials and tribulations of Mum and Dad Hornett's marriage - played by the wonderfully funny Estelle Shutkever and Ted Rodgers.

Throughout the play we are constantly asked the question is wedded bliss all it's cracked up to be? And it is one answered convincingly by the cast. For a mainly elderly audience there were certainly plenty of innocent Fifties sexual innuendos to keep the play moving along.

Sailor Beware holds fond memories for members of the Wythall company, because it was first staged by them 25 years ago.

Director Gerry Soloman explained: "A quarter of a century ago we first presented Sailor Beware under the direction of Ted Pedvin. "He cast Estelle Shutkever as Emma Hornett and I played Albert Tuffnall and 25 years on Estelle is recreating the same part."

Lisa Piddington, Redditch Advertiser