ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. To 1 September.

Tour

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
by Lewis Carroll

Chapterhouse Theatre Company Tour to 1 September 2004
Runs 2hr 30min One interval (with raffle)
Review Hazel Brown 22 July at Kingston Maurward

Children captivated by bright and brisk production.You can tell if a production aimed at younger audiences cuts mustard by the number of times the children dash off to the loo. This production of Alice certainly kept them in their places: chairs and rugs on the grass in front of a Dorset lake. The delightful setting, with ducks and geese gliding past, helped considerably; no doubt other beautiful locations on the open-air tour will provide a similar magic.

The versatile young cast play many parts, helped by imaginative and clever costumes, including blades of grass, waving and tossing as Alice disappears down the rabbit hole, as well as beautiful roses in the process of being turned from white to red (but, why doesn't the White Rabbit have any ears?). Simple, effective music from a single electric piano, accompanying well known nursery rhymes (like the Lion and the Unicorn), songs and dances, as well as the fast pace of the action, keeps the youngsters involved.

The Walrus and the Carpenter scene is particularly effective the actors playing the oysters have pearly shells on their heads, plucked off with glee and hypocritical tears by the Walrus and the Carpenter, slurping with gluttonous delight, while the oysters squeak and plead for their lives, before sliding off stage. Claire Dunell's Unicorn has horsey hindquarter movements down to a T. Nicola Osborne is suitably choleric as the Red Queen and Charlie Vincent is a brilliant Cheshire Cat with a truly sinister, maniacal grin.

Whilst the children enjoy seeing these well known characters brought to life on stage, the play brings home just how incomprehensible the world of grown-ups must seem to a child arbitrary, contrary and cruel. Jane Stanton as Alice captures this bewilderment and direct innocence beautifully. However, she is robbed of her moment of triumph at the end, her accusation that You're only a pack of cards! being lost in a clatter of footsteps as the cast clatter around the stage in confusion at the end of court scene, in order to leave at speed, so that Alice is left alone before being woken from her dream by her sisters.

Penguin, Knave, Oyster, Blade of Grass, Butterfly: Emily Bowman
Dormouse, White Queen, Rose Bush, Alice's Sister, Queen's Child, Penguin Oyster, Butterfly, Blade of Grass: Josie Brandford
Mouse, Unicorn, Gryphon, Queen's Child, Oyster, Mirror Maiden, Blade of Grass, Butterfly: Claire Dunnell
Alice's Sister, Canary, Queen's Child, Oyster, Veil, Rose Bush, An Executioner, Butterfly, Blade of Grass: Mary Emmot Roberts
White Rabbit, Pigeon, White King, Oyster, Butterfly: Alec Fellows-Bennett
Duchess, Owl, Oyster, Lion, Butterfly, Blade of Grass: Rachel Foote
March Hare, White Knight, Oyster, An Executioner, Guinea Pig, Butterfly, Blade of Grass: Simon Jacobs
Guinea Pig, Tweedledee, Cook, Card 2, Butterfly, Blade of Grass: Catherine Lambert
Storyteller, Mad Hatter, Card 5: Richard Lynson
Bill the Lizard, Alice's Sister, Tweedledum, Rose Bush, Queen's Child, Butterfly, Blade of Grass: Evelyn O' Malley
Queen of Hearts, Mirror Maiden, Blade of Grass, Canary, Frog Footman, Carpenter: Nicola Osborne
Alice: Jane Stanton
Walrus, Caterpillar, Red King, Fish Footman: Mackenzie Thorpe
Cheshire Cat, Mock Turtle, Dodo, Blade of Grass, Eldest Oyster, Butterfly: Charlie Vincent

Director/Composer: Richard Main
Designers: Rebecca Gadsby, Rob Anderson, Alec Fellows-Bennett and Andy Dorritt
Musical Director: Libby Reeves
Costumes: West Yorkshire Playhouse

2004-08-05 00:05:12