Alice’s Adventures

Once again Alnwick Theatre Club chose to perform an original pantomime which was penned by new society member, Laura Coleman. It was obvious that Laura loved the stories of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’, and had worked hard and with enthusiasm to write the script for this production which was interesting and acted well by members of the society.  In the opening scene the ‘Cheshire Cat’ was a convincing animated prop, and was superbly lit, really adding an extra dimension to the show. The voice-over for the ‘Cheshire Cat’ was experienced actor Matt Bush, and as usual his voice projection was well executed and extremely clear, but it was slightly marred by the sound seeming to come from the opposite side of the stage to the actual cat. Maybe this was intentional, but for me it didn’t quite work!

All the leading roles were well cast and were slick and obviously well-rehearsed in that everything flowed well. The baddy of the show was the ‘Duchess’ played by Susan Joyce.  She was wickedly convincing and soon had the younger element of the audience ‘hissing and booing”!  As ever dame ‘Verluptua’ was played by Jimmy Dodds. It is obvious that he loves playing the part of dame, and his performance reflected his experience. Peter Lewis fitted the role of ‘The White Rabbit’ perfectly and he worked well with the audience, engaging them at every opportunity. ‘Tweedle Dee’ and ‘Tweedle Dum’ were respectively played by Nick Lewis and Sophie Towers. This pair worked well together, their timing was good, and they made a very good comedy duo. Helen Gee-Graham as always put her exuberant energy into playing the part of ‘The Mad Hatter’ and was very entertaining. ‘Alice’, played by Merryn Hughes, and ‘Jack’, played by Liam Cook, made a lovely young couple and were quite charming.  All the actors in the minor roles worked hard and are to be commended. Special mention must go to Lisa Gladstone who was ‘Queen of Hearts’. Her voice could be perfectly heard, her solo singing showed her talent, and she acted the part superbly and was a perfect ‘Queen of Hearts’.As ever, it was delight to watch the dancers from the ‘Alnwick Academy of Dance’. I would love to see more of them! This was a good production which was extremely well received by the audience who obviously had a fun evening and thoroughly enjoyed their pantomime experience. This company is very ‘hands on’ and costumes, set and props were really good and very colourful. The backcloths added that extra dimension to the show as they were excellent.  Lighting was good and scene changes were slick.  A thoroughly enjoyable evening and congratulations to all involved.

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