The new adventures of ‘ALICE’

Morpeth Pantomime Society this year again decided to write their own pantomime, based on the story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Gordon Carr with ideas from Eric Tolman wrote this delightful script to include all the aspects of a good panto. This society is a well established panto group and their aim is to encourage youngsters to become involved and this they do with great and success. The society continues to produce their panto with a real community spirit involving lots of youngsters who take on the important roles of stage manager, back stage crew, lighting, sound and music. These youngsters are extremely efficient in their roles and ensured that the show moves along at a very lively pace. The set was colourful and very well constructed by society members and with scenery and props transported us into the land of make believe very convincingly. The action was full on and fully involved the audience from the word go.

The group has moved on and now has a full band which was extremely good with very talented musicians.  All the characters in the show were well cast and I was amazed at the talent of these youngsters. Diction was superb; clear and well delivered from every single person. The costumes were simply amazing and the whole set of them had been created by Pat Ennion with help from Lucy Gammer. This was a huge task which they obviously loved doing and was a credit to their sewing and design skills. Well done ladies!

We were treated to a fun packed evening from the word go. I loved all the portrayal of the characters and their interaction with the audience. Musical routines were slick and added a real flair to the whole production.  Everyone was well rehearsed and looked so happy and radiant as they performed their moves with enthusiasm. Well done to these young choreographers!  An added bonus to this production was the make-up. Some of the best I have ever seen; it was quite simply ’magical’ and I loved it. Congratulations to the make-team who must have spent hours devising all special touches.

There were so many characters in this panto and they all performed superbly so is difficult to single people out but suffice to say they all gave splendid performances and were word perfect and in character the whole time. However special mention must go to ‘Alice’ Lucy Gibson who was a young and delightful girl on stage and ‘Cheshire Cat’ Lauren Hodgson who was so natural and had such excellent stage presence.

With appearances from all the expected characters in Alice in Wonderland we also were treated to surprise characters Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Bertha, H.G. Wells, The Flintstones, Tweedle Dumb, Dumber and Dumberer, Duck, Owl, Frog, Lost Mouse and Mrs. Mouse and Octopus and even a massive T Rex dinaosaur.  It was such good fun and so well written that one could not fail to thoroughly enjoy the whole production and again congratulate everyone on their individual performances.

What an accolade of talented youngsters this society has; there were no weak links and with support roles played by the stalwart senior performers in this society the evening was fun, magical and a wonderful night out. Thank you all for working so hard to make this production flow so smoothly, transporting us to a very different ‘Wonderland’ full of surprises least of none unexpected appearances of Eric Tolman and his son!!!!  Well done to all for a superb pantomime and can’t wait to see how you can top this next year.

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