Alice in Wonderland

Digswell Players decided to take on a pantomime that is not performed very often: Alice in Wonderland.

Having two directors, Claire Kula and Zara Stuart, can be challenging as there are naturally two different
visions. However, the biggest compliment I can give is that it was impossible to tell who directed what. It
was clear they worked extremely well as a team.

All the chorus numbers were well thought out, making good use of the space and accommodating the
different abilities on stage. A great job.

Charlotte Fossey played the leading lady and principal girl, Alice. She had a strong stage presence and a
lovely voice.

The White Rabbit (the audience’s friend) was played by Alex Brown. Alex’s performance was excellent; it
really shows how well Digswell train their young performers in Expression. He was confident, adapted well
when the audience didn’t respond as expected, and demonstrated great comic timing.

Oli Baskerville and Sam Curzon played Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. They had great chemistry and
strong comic timing.

The Cheshire Cat, played by Emma Gilby, was a wonderful take on what is usually the fairy-type character.

MJ Scott played the Knave of Hearts, the villain of the piece. She got the desired reaction from the
audience; however, I do feel she could have pushed the evil side even further—an evil laugh was missing.

Simon played the Dame, ‘The Duchess’. He is very skilled at working with an audience, especially the poor
gentleman in the front row!

Hannah Robinson’s costume as the Mad Hatter was beautiful, and she gave a good performance. At times,
she needed to slow down her dialogue.

The Queen of Hearts was played well by Linda Dyball, giving a very regal characterisation.
The set was, as always, well designed and beautifully painted. I really appreciate how there is never a long
blackout and how well thought out the transitions are.

The costumes were excellent and, once again, made by the company—no mean feat. The Dame’s
costumes were especially lovely.

I really enjoyed seeing a different panto and watching young performers trained by Digswell truly stand out.

Thank you, as always, to the front-of-house team.

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