WEST Wight author, singer and director Cheryl May has written a new pantomime which will be performed at The Trinity Theatre, Cowes, over the next two weekends.

Cheryl, from Freshwater, has had more than 85 scripts published, and now Jungle Book the Pantomime under her pen name Cheryl Barrett, will come to life.

Cheryl said: "Jungle Book the Pantomime is a first for the Island. I wrote the pantomime version on my regular visits to the Jireh House and Gossips cafes in Yarmouth and on a long haul flight to Canada.

"I have been writing for years and prefer to work in busy places. Coffee and cake are a welcome distraction, I switch off from any surrounding noise and just focus on writing."

Set in the Indian jungle, the villager’s costumes are a colourful contrast to the jungle animals, with a traditional blue peacock and Bengal tiger reflecting Indian culture.

Cheryl added: "With pantomime everything is larger than life. We have a comic duo and pantomime dame, which were not in Rudyard Kipling’s original stories.

"My imagination has run wild a bit as you’ll see during the Bandar Log monkey picnic, but it works, I even managed to get Queen Victoria in the panto.

"I have a wonderful cast of talented adults and children from our Trinity Youth Theatre who are thoroughly engaging with the script and characters. We all love Baloo the happy bear, and our villain Shere Khan is a big pussy cat at heart.

"The Jungle Book stories enthralled me as a child and I relished the opportunity to adapt the stories both as a fun-filled family pantomime and as a play for schools."

Cheryl also offers a free Jungle Book related workshop to any IW schools that perform her play version and can be contacted at www.cherylbarrettwriter.co.uk.

Performances will be held on Friday (November 30) at 7.30pm and Saturday (December 1) at 2.30pm; Friday (December 7) at 7.30pm; Saturday (December 8) at 2.30pm; and Sunday (December 9) at 2.30pm.

Buy tickets online at www.caods.org.uk or call the box office 295229.