Alice

I was excited to go along to see All Saints Elton Theatre Youth’s production of Alice, written and directed by the society’s very own Charlotte Crowley . The production was at Bury Met which is quite a small and intimate performance space. There was no fixed set as such which was a very brave move but personally I do feel that it worked for this production. Sound by Andy Milthorpe was good with no drops or gremlins but I would mention to all the cast to work on a bit more vocal projection - a microphone can only do it’s work if solid sound is there for it to work with. Lighting by Rebecca Foster was sympathetic to the scenes. Costumes by Su Terry were simple, recognisable and yet quite subtle which gave the production a much more mature feel. Wendy Crowley prompted from the side which I personally feel was a much better spot but I do feel that nerves got to some of the cast and it did affect their performance with needing so many audible prompts - it is very tempting to look at the prompter when you need a prompt , it is better (in my opinion) to breathe , continue the connection made with the audience and let the prompter then prompt in the gap left. 

The three narrators Thea Osmond, Jessica Simms and Robbin Tomany-Hall did a good job of telling the story from the side. They all had good projection and made a nice connection with the audience - given the performance space , the audience were very close to the cast so this was a difficult thing for them to be comfortable with but they did it with ease. Freya Dempsey as Daisy showed a good strong characterisation, her dialogue with Alice (Harper Lucas-Caine) was delivered with good pace and projection . Halle Howarth as Rabbit made a good connection with the audience and had a strong physical characterisation. The Caterpillar made up of Joseph Reed, Jacob Fleming and Ronnie Pennington - unfortunately it was quite difficult to hear their dialogue most of the time but they told their part in the story visually. Bella Wheeler as The Queen was nicely strident, she had some good pace and projection. Charlie Hall as Guard 1 had a great characterisation, he looked straight out at the audience and made a connection and delivered his dialogue with confidence. Frankie Armstrong played Cheshire Cat also with some good pace and delivery. 

The whole cast used the performance space well and it was very obvious to me that there is a nice foundation of stagecraft being introduced and elaborated on. 

Thank you for inviting me, I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

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