Alice in Wonderland: The Panto

PLEASE NOTE:

Any observation made by the reviewer can only be based on what he sees at the performance in question.  The reviewer may have received information in advance of the performance, and it is inevitable that his assessment will be affected by that knowledge.

The N.O.D.A. Representative’s intention is to give an objective critique of the overall production and in particular the performance viewed.  It should be remembered that any review of this nature can only be objective as far as the techniques used during the performance observed.  Any criticisms expressed may not have been valid at other performances and are only made to encourage higher standards in Amateur Theatre.

It is hoped that the audience’s appreciation of your efforts will have given everyone a lift and encouraged you to greater achievements in the future and that the observations made by the reviewer will prove helpful in improving future productions.

Report by Angus Sheppard-Hughes SW Regional Representative District 16

I am happy to say that this is my first pantomime of the year and in all honesty I love a panto that happens early before Christmas or after Christmas because it either gets the energy up and ready to go for the festive season, or it keeps it going past the actual day. So reviewing on at the end of November is wonderful for me!

Before going on, I would like to caveat this entire review by mentioning that this society gave a real family feel to it. With multiple cast members being members of families, as well as the creative team and tech team, it exuded this from the stage as well. So well done to the entire society for giving this warm feeling to the audiences.

The Juniors  were utilised well throughout the show, and all of you had a great stage presence and worked well with each other on the stage. But, WOW can you scream loudly! It almost burst my eardrums (I guess that was the aim). One comment to the creative team, perhaps whilst having the kids at the front of the stage such as in the first scene, you may give them something to do? Maybe they could have come even further down and “guarded” the audience. Just a thought because they did so well sitting still for a whole scene, but they may have been better used doing something? Nonetheless, a wonderful group working together.

The voice of the Jaberwocky and the body of the Jaberwocky a lovely combination, and unexpected! When the Jaberwocky roared, the sound could have been a tad quieter, as my eardrums were fit to burst by that point, haha. But these are only minor points. The painting of the Cheshire Cat was also very well painted, and you had a great booming voice too, really carried around the room.

The wrong rabbits Maureen, Rodney, Nibbles and Gordon were another good use of people on stage, with all the wrong rabbits making the classic villain mistakes and gags whilst on stage. Gordon looked wonderful in their Alice costume and with their Alice impression, and honestly I believed that Rodney was really in pain after the wrong red queen pulled their tail out! Some good acting all round!

Mrs Wrong Rabbit, Bandersnatch and The Wrong Royal Red Queen are the remaining members of the ‘baddies’, and all three got into the character well. Mrs Wrong Rabbit had a good stage presence, and brilliant story telling. You played her in a very “Mrs Lovett” way, which was funny to see. Bandersnatch really got the audience going, the stereotypical villain sidekick that can never seem to get anything right, you played this character with a lot of confidence, which was often overlooked by the Wrong Royal Red Queen. Speaking of her, you were very sassy, had a great costume (I even had a kid behind me saying “wow look at her dress” with her eyes wide open) and you understood the audience by waiting for their boos to come before you started talking. The script really made me cringe at some points as you had some of the most risqué jokes of them all. Altogether a great comedy baddy trio.

The dormouse was a small character who mimicked he king, falling asleep a lot and echoing a lot of what the other characters had to say. You really looked like you had a lot of fun, and I loved the onesie!

The Mad Hatter and the March Hare were a great pairing. I immediately knew who you were when the curtain opened on you. The mad hatter was exactly as exactly as written…mad. You had a brilliant accent and excellent volume. You worked well with Alice, Harry and The Right Royal Red Queen in all your scenes, and the march hare did a great job duplicating your energy in your scenes together. A brilliant performance.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum at first I didn’t realise who you were, but that isn’t your fault, because the first joke you said was hilarious but described you as Page 1 and Page 3, and it wasn’t until later in the script when it mentioned that you were Tweedledee and Tweedledum. The slosh scene with the cream/shaving foam was also funny, including when the cubs joined in actually telling you both to hit each other with the rolling pin. I found this very funny.

The White Rabbit had a great voice, very operatic. A huge bundle of energy, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. Your white heels you were wearing also gave some great noises whilst you were running around and getting flustered. You started the show off strong, getting the audience to follow you and boo the enemy when Bandersnatch came on. I felt you kept the whole show together at points and led a lot of the plot towards the end, so a great job done.

The Right Royal Red King and Queen did a lovely job at keeping the audience engaged and the king in particular had quite a few comedic moments. In the performance I saw, the queen had a minor slip up of lines right at the beginning, but please don’t worry, I always believe that you can judge a person’s acting ability by how they bounce back after a slip up of lines and you did well to get yourself back up and going again so well done. Throughout the performance you were both very consistent with your characters and gave good comedic performances.

Alice and Harry were the pantomimes leading characters and love interests, but just like in normal pantomimes the leads are often the ones who do the least, so you both did well to keep that stage presence whilst actually not having as much time on stage as some others. Your voices were lovely and the acting was just as traditionally big as expected from a panto. You both worked well with all cast members which made watching you all a treat.

My biggest shout out is to the Flamingo who stole the show in my opinion. It reminded me of the cheekiness of Gordon the Gopher mixed with a little bit of Emu and Rod Hull in it. I genuinely laughed so much I got stared at by the cubs sat opposite me.

A couple of constructive criticisms that I would give would be looking at the sound elements of the show. I understand fully about cost implications of having radio mics or ambiance mics, so without either of these I would suggest lowering either the total volume or lowering the bass level of the music from the speakers in order to hear the cast fully. The lighting was appropriate for each of the scenes and I must comment on how beautiful the hand painted set pieces were, truly a spectacle.

One final point, the Direction, Choreography and Music Direction were all good, allowing each of the cast members to have their moments. I would possibly suggest to cut back on the amount of people on the stage at any one point especially for a small stage such as this, but overall this was a well thought out, small scale, local pantomime, and there really should be more of these around.

These comments solely reflect the view of the representative and can only relate to the performance seen.

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