Alice in Pantoland

While “Alice in Wonderland” must be familiar with theatre going audiences, COS Musical Theatre’s production of “Alice in Pantoland” is a first, by COS’ very own Jonny Jones. All the familiar characters appear starting with the White Rabbit who leads a bored Alice on the adventure she craves down the rabbit hole. There she meets the silly twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum; has tea with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, is helped by the Cheshire Cat and Absolon, and plays croquet with the scary ‘off with his head’ spouting Queen of Hearts. This version becomes more of a panto – hence “Pantoland” – with the audience interaction and participation, and the ‘Dame’ role being fulfilled quite perfectly by an outrageously funny Queen of Hearts played by Mark O’Connor in his first outing in a Panto, which is startling, as this seems to be the role he was born to play. Much to the audience’s delight, Alice goes on the traditional hero’s journey to defeat the Queen of Hearts by stealing her magic staff which threatens to make people ugly. Starting the second act with “Imagine” while poignant and beautifully performed, brought the energy right down, which left act two feeling a little too long; however, it is always wonderful to be treated to a unique production.

Set and scenery are appropriately simple, and the actors do really well to use the whole space with a raised platform along the back wall which was regularly used by performers as a walkway or dancing space as well as seating. The Queen’s throne was gorgeously over the top and her staff had twinkly lights which was a lovely touch. The lighting on different areas worked well as did the different colours in the lights for different effects and moods. The croquet using pink flamingos as per the book was a lovely touch. There was a lovely joke routine using a box of props as prompts for puns during speaking which was both clever and ‘panto joke groan’ worthy. The sound was mostly level, but with everyone having their own mic, sometimes they didn’t work straight away in a song or there was a delay in tech meaning the audience missed some of the song words, which was a shame, especially in some of the songs where the words had been cleverly changed in line with the Panto; however, it didn’t throw the actors at all who carried on in a very professional way. The costumes and wigs were great, and the makeup was really effective.

The music was super. The choice of songs was wide reaching from all eras, a completely eclectic mix appealing to the very mixed age audience. The singing was really beautiful from every single cast member: Kirsty Jones who played Alice has a beautiful voice and seemingly boundless energy appropriately for the role. The version of “Stop” (Spice Girls) became hilarious with the performance of Amy Stubbing as the White Rabbit; and the whole cast performing “The Frog Chorus” was both beautiful and incredibly funny in movement as well as singing. The choreography has to be mentioned also – it was effective, modern, and well rehearsed: really fabulous.

What truly stands out in this production is the quality of the acting, and the ease they all have with interacting with each other and the audience. They create a warmth and responsiveness between them which envelopes everyone and carries us all on a joyous and crazy ride. Amy Stubbing was quite simply perfect as the White Rabbit, including mannerisms and facial expressions. Becky Berlanga equally so as the Mad Hatter: great stage presence and such fluency and ease in her performance; equally brilliant was her counterpart Kevin Wort as the March Hare who has some of the best comedy timing. Mark O’Connor as the Queen is the kind of performance that will make audience members smile long afterwards just by remembering some of the mad and quirky things he said or did. There was quite a bit of adult humour which hopefully passed over the heads of the younger children in the audience, while there were ripples of guffaws and belly laughs from so many there. Congratulations to COS Musical Theatre on a very special, silly, joyful, hysterical and crazy production.

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