Alice in Wonderland

 

What a simply enormous hall Crowland Amateur Dramatic Society have to perform in at the South View Community Primary School in the town. How fantastic to be able to accommodate so large an audience all in one go. And the school hall was packed to capacity on Friday night.

Alice in Wonderland is not a traditional pantomime of course and it was the first time this successful society had tackled it. They were clearly up for the challenge.

I enjoyed the lovely selection of music before the show, including favourites like ‘ A Spoonful of Sugar’ from Mary Poppins. It got us in the mood for an evening of fun filled laughter and good old panto entertainment. The audience were full of anticipation. Then the show began.

I must, first of all, mention the simply amazing costumes. They were all just so ‘right’ and just as we remember, or imagine them, from this much loved story. So my ‘Mad Hatter’s’ hat off to Carol Cole and all the wardrobe team for so much hard work. The results of all your efforts were plain to see. Just wonderful. Well done. From The Knave to the White Rabbit, from the Queen of Hearts to the Mad Hatter and all the others inbetween, the outfits were faultless.

Cheryl Doyle played a suitably wicked Knave of Hearts and never let her characterisation of this baddie drop. I loved the wig and make up and really enjoyed Cheryl’s performance. The rhyming lines of The Knave and the Cheshire Cat (played so purrfectly by Ellen Woodbridge-Young) came over well. My favourite of her lines, ‘Dogs are useless, they can’t operate MRI machines, but Cats Can.’ I loved the cat’s suspended tail and the very good lighting often showed off her costume to maximum effect. Well done with the lighting overall. I especially noticed the dramatic lighting change for the moment the knave is exposed as the tart stealer. And extra praise for the following spot operators who accurately followed the action throughout.

Leading lady Alice, played by Lucy Hill, had a mountain of lines and songs to remember and  looked just the part in her lovely traditional costume. Just how we imagine Alice to be.

The large junior chorus performed well all through the show and never missed an entrance. Their chaperones must have been working hard – well done. Their opening number with Alice set the scene for the story to unfold. I also enjoyed the dawn chorus scene too. A veritable team of chorographers put together some very full and complex routines through the show, stretching to the fast paced hand jiving of ‘We Go Together.’

Jo Strickland seemed to have a limitless supply of energy from the very start to the very end of the show as the White Rabbit, including hopping on and off stage with seemingly little effort at all. She always lifted the pace when she came on and was a true friend to all the audience – who always repaid that friendship with shouts of ‘Hurry, hurry, Mr Bunny!’

Dame John Munton, the ‘Master Baker Duchess’ enjoyed working the audience and looking for his new beau among us, accompanied by very appropriate Jaws music. ‘I bought a new perfume, its called Tester’ was one of my favourite lines. The Dame is such a difficult part to play, it’s a ‘bloke in a dress’, a uniquely British panto part. John played it with a quiet, gently spoken sarcasm that was though, as coarse as ever – much of those bits necessarily going over the heads of the younger members of the audience. As for that teeny weeny bikini….

There was good comic support from Jayne Munton and Matthew Smith as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee in their very bright costumes. John Martin was an excellent Mad Hatter – I loved the white make up that contrasted so well with the costume. John’s booming voice and wacky eccentricity was just right for the part. Nancy Hill’s Dormouse was so cute. I was watching Nancy all through her scenes and she never let her energy drop – right to the last walkdown. I wish I had her stamina. Well done Nancy. I loved those ears!

Jo Abraham was a very fitting Queen of Hearts who acted regally throughout as a ‘Killer Queen’ and somehow managed to keep that fabulous headgear in place at the same time. Maddie Hill, Nigel Powell, Sharon Bell and Freya Bell portrayed their Wonderland creations well, completing the story.

The scene painters had been busy, so many different backcloths to paint. My favourite was the beach scene with the smiley sun and sleepy moon. The make up team must have got through so much of the stuff. I was very impressed with the makeup overall, so important when you are playing to an audience, often a great distance away. I was sat quite a way back and found it to be perfectly effective. Well done.

The pace of the action on stage did drop a little at times, most notably during the cooking scene and also the ghost gag scene, which needed to be tightened up a bit.  The very slick scene changes and hard work of the stage crew did help move things on though, which is so important in panto.

Some of the musical numbers were very challenging but everyone knew their words and kept up with the difficult rhythms and lyrics of so many modern numbers. Musical Director Charlie Bennett had obviously been working everyone hard.

There were lots of local references of course, that I loved, like this one: ‘Girls don’t fight.’ ‘You’ve obviously never been to Spalding on a Saturday night!’

More than 70 people were involved in this production, under the leadership of Matt Smith, Carla Cole and Nathan Snell as Co-Producers, who along with Technical Director Michael Joyce-Knowles had obviously been cracking the whip.

Well done to the whole cast and crew. I look forward to my next visit to pantoland in Crowland.

Andrew Key

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