News

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, our festive co-production with Travelling Light Theatre, opened just a week ago, and already the show’s got a string of lovely reviews under its belt. So if you need any further temptation to come along and catch this treasure of a show other than the promise of magic, marvels and music, read on…

—UPDATED 21 December—

Read new reviews from musicOHM.com and theatreworld internet magazine, plus a rather lovely bit of feedback from an audience member in Lyn Gardner’s guardian.co.uk Panto Patrol blog. Lyn herself adds, ‘It’s a real delight’. We’re looking forward to reading her full of the show, which should be published around the beginning of January.

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Sophie Lomax at Bristol Evening Post gave the show a fantastic 9 out of 10. She said…
Fight your kids for tickets to this glorious, spirited show….. a heady mixture of music, light and charm that will thrill absolutely everyone.
To read the full review click here.

Chopsy Baby are big fans of the TF and we got another big thumbs up from them. If you only see one festive show this Christmas, make it this one… was their conclusion after seeing last Friday night’s show. You can read the full review here.

Palminder Kaur at Guide2Bristol.com also clearly enjoyed herself, describing the show as an absolute treat from start to finish.
Find out what else she thought here.

TF Christmas show stalwart Jeremy Brien was also along on press night representing The Stage. He thought the show was as delightful as anything that has gone before. To read the full review click here.

And last but by no means least, we got a lovely write-up and a fabulous 4 stars in this week’s Venue Magazine. Here’s what Tom Phillips said:

The obvious problem’s in the title: forty thieves. Kinda tricky, that, when you’ve only got a cast of five. And then there are the golden spoils of 100 years of brigandage stashed in a cave, the multiple murders, the constant fo-ing and fro-ing, the donkeys… Suffice to say (and without wanting to spoil anything), the solutions this joint Travelling Light/Tobacco Factory production comes up with are elegantly theatrical and witty. No matter how ancient the tale of chalk-and-cheese brothers and a big mound of bling, the storytelling’s fresh and exuberant, with the darker bits leavened by plenty of nicely judged jokes and the cast role-hopping with ease. The full-size thieves and their vowel-growling ‘captain’ (a wonderful, hirsute Felix Hayes) are joyously, spectacularly thick, while Suzanne Ahmet’s pragmatic Marijanah and Saikat Ahamed’s guileless Ali draw the all-ages audience into a gripping yarn. Benji Bower’s music plays a key role in holding it all together too, and if, early on, the set up seems a tad slow, you’d need a heart that’s harder than a City fan with eight pints inside him not to relish Ali’s changing fortunes, the demise of Kasim (Remi Tawose) and the thieves’ ill-fated attempt at revenge. Deliciously entertaining Xmas family fare.

Keep your eyes peeled on the news section for more reviews as they come in… Or why not write your own? Think you can put what you thought better than any of the pros? Drop us a line (max 200 words) and we’ll post the best on our website. Email Carrie at theatre@tobaccofactory.com.