Alice In Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland – a Musical Pantomime

Written by Tracy Rogers

Original Music by Hugh Saxby

Performed by Bampton Players on 21st February 2025 at Riverside Hall, Bampton

Directed by Avril Saxby

Musical Director Hugh Saxby

 

The staging and set for this pantomime were built from scratch and designed by the company. The audience were greeted with a closed curtained stage and beautifully painted front flats created by Laura Grant, an art teacher in Bampton. Stunning depictions of woodland and flowers, creatures and characters hidden within, all painted with great care, just stunning. The Cyclorama was also painted this way by Laura and was impressive.

Alice was played sensitively and with a lovely stillness while all around her were ‘losing their heads’. She had superb diction and clarity, holding the audiences’ gaze in every scene. Carroll, when he wrote the book wanted Alice to be ‘loving and gentle, courteous to all, trustful and wildly curious’, the director and the actor, Willow, captured this perfectly. Dressed in a blue dress with white touches, blue and white striped tights, a blue headband with white ribbons and with sparkly diamonds on the buckle of her shoes, she looked exactly how Alice is imagined and sang a gorgeous song, written by High Saxby ‘What are they expecting from me’.

I must make mention that all of the songs in this pantomime were written by Hugh Saxby and recorded with dubbed vocals. This is useful as personal mics are not used and it assists the actors too.

The Dame is Nora Knowitall, protective of Alice and know it all, as per her name. This actor, dressed in a green, orange and blue dress with a bright green wig certainly relished this role and had amusing stage presence. The White Rabbit, with agitated energy, looked fabulous in his costume of white fur pantaloons and a burgundy and gold waistcoat with incredible ears that bent on their own, ingenious. A nice portrayal throughout along with his sister Bunty Bunny, new to the company, who was lovely to watch too.  As Alice and Nora enter Wonderland this was shown by the curtains opening enough for us to see the first flat in which there is a rabbit hole covered with material allowing the actors to fall through. Another flat with keyholes and doors appears, as two puppets, made by Hugh and dressed by Ali Diamond, are puppeteer on stage. Representing the shrunken Alice and Nora. The puppets climb through a small door into the next scene where we have full grown characters again. Ingeniously created.

The wonderland cast are dressed so well it could be a professional production. The ensemble was all dressed in black carrying 2D playing cards, painted and created with differing court cards, being Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Clubs, King of Diamonds, Kings of Spades, Knave of Diamonds and Knave of Clubs. Each of these actors and young actors appeared constantly either laying the table for the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, supporting the Queen of Hearts or accompanying the musical numbers. My goodness they worked hard especially maneuvering themselves on stage which was impressive.

The actor playing The Mad Hatter was superb in this portrayal. Very excitable and yet a controlled interpretation of this classic role, with superb diction and a lovely singing voice. The March Hare with her posh almost ‘squadron leader’ type voice ‘ being in the

Royal Hare Force’  dressed in grey with a bowler hat and ears popping through was lovely to watch along with the drowsy Dormouse played by a seasoned actor. These three were funny when trying to put up three deckchairs.

The Queen of Hearts was notoriously nasty and unlikeable and portrayed with exacting bluntness by this actor who looked incredible and commanded the stage (as she should). I loved the added character of the Duchess, the Queen’s sister who was obviously ‘The Spare’ and hated her sister for it, jealously plotting her downfall, ‘My face is my passport’ says the Queen and the Duchess retorts ‘It’s a shame it’s expired’!  Played tersely by this actor,  it added a very funny secondary story to the production. We also had the Duchess’ partner in crime, her cook, grumpy and demanding with her onions slung around her neck and her chef’s hat. Their duet ‘Stronger Together’ was well sung with lovely harmonies.

The King of Hearts was perfectly cowardly dressed in his red pantaloons, waistcoat and crown, cowering every time his wife spoke however their duet of ‘Every time I See You’ was delightful and showed their love for one another. The Knave of Hearts, an actor with a natural ‘brummie’ accent was nicely sarcastic toward everyone, especially his sister the Princess of Hearts, played with refined timidness by this actor. And then there was Tweedledum and Tweedledee who sang ‘I’m him, He’s me’ and gave added frivolity to the production with their antics.

Even though the Queen of Hearts is normally the baddy in this pantomime we were treated to two more in this production being The Joker and Mr Rules. I enjoyed the funnel trick they performed where liquid is poured through Mr Rules arm and out of his wrist into a glass.  Both actors bounced off of each other well. A charming cameo role was that of the Caterpillar who sang a simple song and looked amazing. Supporting roles such as that of the Cheshire cat were cleverly acted with a face-mask smile.

There were a number of audience participation opportunities with a huge button on stage which if attempted to be pressed would cause the audience to shout ‘Don’t touch the button’ and a community song sheet, written by Hugh and accompanied by him on guitar. Clever stage props such as Nora enters carrying a stool and a small set of bars that she places in front of her face as she sits in her pretend cell. 

The costumes were exceptional. Beautifully crafted in sumptuous materials and lending toward medieval style with the Royal family in red with gold trim and ruffs. The cleverly designed rabbit costumes and those of the Mad Hatter with a price tag stating ‘In this style 10s’6d’ in the huge top hat, all added to the impressive look of this production and the attention to details the wardrobe mistress gave.  Ali Diamond deserves a medal for her ability to dress such a large cast so wonderfully well.

The whole production was lit well and there was good control of sound.  Bampton Players are blessed to have a huge number of gifted artists in all genre assisting in creating this lovely pantomime and a good number of talented actors too. It was a delight to watch and review.

Lyn Burgoyne Noda Representative South West ( District 5, Mid and East Devon)

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