This week I was back to the Little Theatre again to check out their latest show “Sailor Beware!” presented by Leicester Drama Society. Accompanying me this time was my usual sidekick in life, my husband, and together we looked forward to an evening of entertainment (following a lovely dinner just round the corner).

We have come to the realisation that LDS is a family that supports each other and this theatre that we have the joy of visiting regularly now to review a variety of performances. Front of house we chatted to Elizabeth Spendlove who had played Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d recently, in the auditorium we were sitting next to Martin Bell who had also appeared in that same production and, during the interval I chatted briefly with Kat Seddon who had played Mary in The Memory of Water. It was wonderful to see other members of LDS supporting those on stage.

Shows at The Little, I have come to learn, are varied in their storylines and their genres with many being scripts or stories that I don’t know at all. For me it is a bit like a blindfold pick n mix. Dip your hand in the bag and pull out a sweet – but what flavour? Most of the time it is a Sherbert Lemon or a Haribo fried egg – some of my favourite sweets but, on this occasion, Sailor Beware! was a Parma Violet. Still sweet enough to enjoy but not quite hitting the mark.

The set, designed by Anna Field, is a nice simple one conveying the living room of the Hornett’s house where all the action takes place and I really liked the humour that was brought into the play using the doors to other unseen parts of the house. I especially liked the number of times a character would walk into the room only to leave again very quickly as they observed the interaction happening between other characters in the living room. This developed as the show progressed and the laughs that came with it, although almost expected, grew throughout the evening.

Unfortunately the storyline didn’t connect with me and this may have had an impact on my enjoyment of the show. Whilst director Russel Hughes and his cast had a really good go at the show it is a very wordy script and, in my personal opinion, about 45 minutes too long. The disconnect between me and the storyline was also felt between the characters. All the actors did their parts very well (allowing for a few script errors but it was opening night and, as previously mentioned wordy) but very few of them seemed to connect with each other. This is a shame as there were some good storylines such as the hate/love/hate relationship between Henry and Emma Hornett and the developing relationship between Carnoustie (some lovely facial expressions from Joey Perez-Jones which slightly stole the show) and Daphne but none of these quite hit the mark.

I think the cast should be proud of pulling off the script and I think this, for me, is more that I didn’t enjoy the storyline which meant I struggled with the showing. I have no doubt that these relationships will develop as the week progresses as there are some very humorous parts in it – especially in the second half – and every amateur performer deserves an audience because I know they all work so very hard so please, do give it a chance and go and see Sailor Beware! at the Little Theatre as it runs until 18th April. Tickets are available here.

Tickets gifted for an honest review. Photo credit to Jonathan Pryke