Alice in Wonderland

A pantomime full of colour and crazy characters based on the well-known wonderful tales of Alice written by Lewis Carroll and, a first of this panto title for me, but with the usual message that good does overcome evil.

It is decreed in the Great Book of Wonderland on Frabjous Day a young girl called Alice will fall down from a rabbit hole and save Wonderland from doom, for the Great Clock was running out of time and the scary Jabberwocky holds the key to rewind it. Principal girl Alice does fall down the hole and meets principal boy Harry and together with the help of The White Rabbit, the constantly sleepy Good Red King and Queen, their Royal Pages, The Mad Hatter and various other animals and flowers they do succeed in thwarting  the very wicked Wrong Red Queen, Bandersnatch, a right Wrong Rabbit and their four very bad Wrong Rabbits. We were taken down to the Wrong Rabbit’s Burrow, to a Right Royal Palace Kitchen and made jam tarts with a helpful flamingo, saw Alice drink a shrinking potion and Lucy Marns, a little Alice appears, went to The Mad Hatter’s  Tea Party, saw a huge flying Teapot, stood outside the Jabberwocky’s Cave, entered the Wrong Red Queen’s Castle and her ‘special’ love Turret, experienced going Through the Looking Glass, saw ghostly rabbits and finally to the joyous engagement party for Alice and Harry – quite exhausting and everyone lived happily ever after. An action-packed, slick performance with much laughter, good slapstick, well-choreographed interesting movement, songs, booing and cheering, plus audience sing along rendition of ‘I’m a Little Teapot’ with actions!

The White Rabbit with his twitching nose, constantly on the move and always pocket clock watching was Tony Bailey in fine white costume and check waistcoat.  Antony Hart not only took on the demanding role of lovable Dame namely The Right Royal Red Queen dressed in various creations of red frocks with several changes of wigs, very good makeup he also designed the colourful, beautifully painted magical flats which stood angled either side of stage together with other locations already mentioned and the effective professional backdrops too. Kieran Howlett responsible for set build together with the able crew. At his side, well quite often asleep was The Right Royal Red King played by Joe Ropper making an  impressive  sleepy entrance, pushed in the royally decorated wheelchair,  attired in fur trimmed  red tunic with red hose and a splendid Crown with grey beard attached.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the pages, were sportingly played by Alesha Hazelden and Poppy Vigers,  game for bit of pie throwing and water squirting and encouraging the audience sing along. Costumes of red and yellow finished off with tasselled caps, great see-through plastic macs and goggles. Lucie Payne with her long locks, alice-blue frock and white apron played a delightful principal girl saving the day and pairing well with Kacey South as her love match Harry with their nicely sung duet. Xan Kite certainly made her presence known as an expressive, convincing and boo-worthy Bandersnatch, a very bad rabbit dressed with jabbard, wine coloured long coat, leggings, boots almost steam punk look, with ears. She was well supported by her gang of four namely Georgia, Poppy J, Rosie and Elise again well dressed. Alicia Osborne was really evil too as the Wrong Red Queen from entry with her rushes of angry outbursts – another great character to boo in a rather splendid shot wine coloured frock decorated with hearts. Following the colour scheme and another nasty was Mrs Wrong Rabbit with Amy Osborne delivering some more lines to boo. Esmee Rowland-Carthew played the enthusiastic crazy inventor The Mad Hatter with Maddie Hart as the smiling Cheshire Cat, Keiran Howlett the snappy popup Flamingo puppet, Julia Ujdak The March Hare, a very sleepy Dormouse Matthew Hogg, with Mia Osborne, although we heard a fearsome voice, the not so frightening dragon Jabberwocky. Well done to the team of Wonderlanders, talking Flowers Playing Cards, and Ghosts for playing their parts, learning co-ordinated  movements and projecting lyrics with songs of sunshine, evil, love and flowers so very well.

Lisa Hart SM kept order for smooth running backstage with Russ Kirton on Sound and Lee Pierce Lighting and fun effects. Claire McKeough created the colourful picture of costume with attention to detail and fine props were collated by Coleen Burt and Amy Osborne. This panto enabled the whole cast to be so involved and I particularly liked the way Director Russ Kirton alternated the ‘So long’ finale bow lines giving the whole company a front of stage appearance.  

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