Fred Lawless has a knack for spinning Merseyside variants of old sitcom formats. Last year's Merry Ding Dong was a fractious update of Love Thy Neighbour, in which an Evertonian and a Red attempted to celebrate Christmas together. Now he has created a version of Gilligan's Island set in a South Sea paradise colonised by a lost race of Liverpudlians.
Father O'Flaherty, the intemperate Irish priest who featured in last year's show, has been hauled before the bishop and ordered to adopt a missionary position (pardon the innuendo, but it's that kind of show). So he and a nubile team of "Sisters of Mersey" are despatched to the island of Secosu, inhabited by the descendants of a shipwrecked Scouser named Billy Riley.
Are they happy to be there? Not remotely: "Nothing to do, no footie on a Saturday and nothing to eat but friggin' bananas." Yet there is trouble in paradise, as a team of rapacious developers come tunnelling through with plans to develop the island into a luxury resort.
Lawless's play could be taken as a stinging satire on Liverpool's tendency to undermine its heritage with ruthless commercial exploitation. Alternately, it's proof that adult pantomime doesn't necessarily have to feature Jim Davidson and a lot of smutty jokes – or, at least, it doesn't have to feature Jim Davidson.
There's an enjoyable flashback to how Billy taught the islanders the fundamentals of the Scouse alphabet: R, A and U (as in: "Arr-ey you"). Bob Eaton's production barrels along nicely, although the island setting proves a little flimsy: Paul Duckworth's dastardly developer won't exact much revenue from his newly installed toll booth – as the barrier comes off in his hand.
