The Coll Players once again gave of their best in a pantomime performance of Hansel and Gretel in the Village Hall. This fairy tale story of a wicked stepmother and father who lead their children into the woods and abandon them there was interestingly rewritten and produced for the stage by Kip Poulson.

Hansel, excellently played by a long-legged and bare-kneed Rupert Leighton, and Gretel a rosy-cheeked and pig-tailed Isobel Hume, took the stage with a knowledge of topical events which greatly belied their innocent appearance and fresh German -accents.

As the terrifyingly buxom and alarmingly assertive stepmother, Peter Smalley was in a part he made all his own, not at all intimidated by the girth and presence of Ron Davies, his `husband' and partner in crime, the woodcutter.

Once in the woods the children encountered many strange creatures, amongst them a bearded and startlingly yellow goose played by the inimitable Ali Anderson; a lesser spotted upstart (Sally Anne Lodge) and a tree that could walk and talk (Deborah Alexander) before they were ensnared by Jo Davies, dark and domineering as the Wicked Witch.

Even when the children had escaped the clutches of the witch they were still lost in the woods - not to be helped by a hapless corncrake played by John Porrelli.

All was finally resolved however when even the Wicked Witch escaped her gruesome fairy tale ending and was able to come and live in a kirkcare house in the village.

Expertly narrated as usual by Lavinia Bristol, many others also contributed much behind the scenes: the costumes by Pam Garnett and Fay Anderson; stage lights, curtains and props by Roy Barrie and Maurice McVey and the excellent scenic backdrop by Val Smith, Tammic Rutherford and Karlijn Dickison. Paint for the scenery was kindly supplied by Dulux and Tony Cave of Craigard Paintshop, Oban.