By Anne Hopper

It’s almost panto time! Not quite yet, but at the end of December and into January 2023, the Hurst Players will present a very homegrown version of the classic tale Treasure Island. Loosely based on the famous novel by Robert Louis Stevenson (actually hanging by a thread!) it will be a traditional panto – a rollicking tale of buccaneers and buried treasure, written by Bob Sampson and directed by Richard Coney.

We’ll have Long John Silver and his band of renegades – a traditional Pantomime Dame – yes, really - and a Fairy Mermaid plus our variation on some of the characters from the book: Squire Trelawney, Billy Bones, Blind Pugh – now renamed Blind Poo - this is a panto! And not forgetting our hero ‘Jim Lad’ Hawkins.

Tickets - £11 for adults £8 for children under 12 will shortly be available online from hurstplayers.org.uk – and from December, in person at the Theatre Box Office on Saturday mornings.