Alice in Wonderland

With the Festive period over and the January Blues kicking in, what I desperately needed was an evening full of great entertainment and that’s exactly what Darlington Academy of Performing Arts delivered with their annual Pantomime, Alice in Wonderland.

From the very start it was clear what a spectacle myself and a packed out audience were in store for with bright costumes, dazzling lighting effects and a huge cast packing out the stage in their own venue, The Darlington Community Theatre. 

This self-written Pantomime based on the classic novel by Lewis Carroll gave the chance for many of the older Juniors and adults to take on roles with over 18 named characters.  Backed up by another 39 members of Ensemble, Senior Junior Dancers (Team Madhatter) and Junior Dancers (Team White Rabbit) allowed the huge production numbers to have a massive impact.

The script allowed the story to flow well as we followed Alice and her friends on their journey, through all the well known scenes until the finale at The Queen of Hearts Tea Party.

The performance began in true Panto fashion with narration from our resident evil Queen of Clubs bouncing off The Cheshire Cat (well written to play in the form of Fairy Godmother). Both characters would appear at various snap shots throughout the show with Kathryn Gibson giving us a convincing baddie grimace as the Evil Queen, a strong strut and some confident vocals in Toxic really allowing her to build her character. Camryn Mason gave us the brightest and most visual Cheshire Cat I have ever seen with a beautiful costume and striking make-up emphasising the huge grin. She glided across the stage with a real bounce and the energetic performance, fun one-liners and overall uplifting characterisation matched the role (and the huge smile) perfectly.

The story included a lot of local references, as all good Pantos do, and Darlo was the perfect base and setting for the huge opening number 9 to 5 with every cast member involved at various points and led to perfection by our leading lady Madison Parkinson as Alice. It is getting hard to find words to describe just how good Madison is getting as a stage performer. Throughout the show she led and controlled the show, her dancing was on point, facial expressions and dialogue was perfect and her vocals were exceptional. Her 2 main solos in 9-5 and Morning Person were faultless; not only handling the range and pace of each number but the tone and control was a joy to hear. 

As is the traditional story, Alice meets so many different characters along her journey and Madison interacted brilliantly with all her fellow cast members. This connection was most noticeable with Benji Hall as her guide, The White Rabbit. Benji was quite simply just Joy in a big white fluffy outfit and floppy ears giving us energy by the bucket load, portraying the frustrated and muddled character perfectly.

Now every good Panto needs comedy and in Paul Mason as The Joker we certainly weren’t short of jokes, in fact the amount of them suggested that Paul had received a Bad Joke book for a Christmas present. Paul delivered these well with some good comic timing and he brought a great amount of life to the role acting in every way the perfect village idiot.

The show had great comedy moments throughout from the slapstick routine of Tweedle Dum and Dee played in true dimwit fashion by Louise Marquiss and Sarah Cassidy. The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was utter madness with Adelaide Hansen absolutely perfectly cast in the role. She gave us a brilliantly bubbly character with excellent line delivery and her smile and facial expressions in this iconic role brought every scene to life. She should also be very proud of her vocals as she took the lead in Time Warp keeping great control as the whole scene descended into perfectly choreographed chaos.

There were a number of great cameo roles with every member grasping their character well and delivering it with a real bite. Chris Baister was wonderfully sleepy as Dormouse, Cathryn Lee skipped around excellently as March Hare and Marcus Coverdale and Kacey Cadman were fabulous in their small roles as Neil and Duck respectively. 

The final scene would be the Queen of Hearts Tea Party and so it was only right that Rebecca Richmond had her chance to prepare for her party in true style. Aided by her army of stylists and guards, and bossing her husband (the stuttering and bimbling Julian Pinkney) around, Rebecca gave us a lovely sense of Grandeur and Power. She delivered her lines with true authority and again had a chance to show off her voice in a lovely performance of Kings and Queens.

Now don’t be concerned… although at times I would like to forget the Dame in the show (Yes I was picked on as her love interest!) Ben Moseby as The Duchess was quite simply unforgettable. An amazing performance from this talented actor bringing huge life and energy to the show. The cheeky innuendos were perfect, the audience flirting and cheek sensational and the only thing as outrageous as his backchat was his amazing array of dazzling costumes. From stunning frocks to Japanese sword bearing hats this collection had everything, although none of them beat the bodysuit and Itsy Bitsy Teeny Polka Dot Bikini outfit. He interacted with every member of the cast perfectly, from the chaos of baking with Joker and Alice to the audience participation number Ben quite simply stole the show. The use of Material Girl as his solo number was a great choice to show off his acting through song and dance.

Now as good as all the individual performances were, what truly made this show come to life was the Huge Ensemble numbers and wonderfully choreographed large dance routines. The talented dancers gave us everything from whole cast numbers such as Bye Bye Bye and Eye of The Tiger carried out wonderfully in sync to an absolute blast of a party in the big Dance Off number between Clubs and Queens. The energy levels never dropped, the smiles and facial expressions remained constant and from the very young Juniors to the more Senior members everyone committed to every routine. It was great to see two of the Choreography team, Joanne and Laura, showing off their skills on stage too in the dance team. Alongside the dance team it was evident how much work and rehearsal had been put in as the routines were incredibly slick. Most notably in the large Naval Tap Routine and it was lovely to see a young male in Harry Stuart taking part in this complex number.

I am still a bit in shock as to just how much DAPA has managed to achieve in 4 weeks.. This is their 3rd production as a Group and the team between the scenes must never have stopped working. The costumes were amazing with every ensemble member having at least 5 changes - all matching and all bright and detailed to match the show. The scenery and props were bold and colourful and the Stage Crew managed the changes swiftly. Even Larry the grumpy Stage Manager played with an excellent strop by Lee Morris - you simply bowled us over with this cameo role! It is also lovely to see that whilst the adults are taking their turn on stage the Juniors take on the technical roles - from hosting guests to controlling lights and music - they manage everything. Great skills to learn.

So to the Directors and choreographers Joanne and Paul Mason and Laura Pattison and everyone behind the scenes a huge well done and thank you for providing a lovely start to 2025. Time to put you feet up and have a little rest before your next block of shows that I can’t wait to come and see.

 

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