Archives - November 1995

ALICE IN WONDERLAND
by Lewis Carroll, adapted for the stage by Don Carroll

Produced by Ann Burfoot

THE PLAY

Fantasy adventure. A stage interpretation of Lewis Carroll's classic children's book. Alice, out with her big sister, is surprised when a large white rabbit with a a pocket-watch and waistcoat rushes by. Alice follows the rabbit into his hole and finds herself in Wonderland, where everything is strange and illogical. She encounters some varied and peculiar denizens - the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and friends, the Gryphon and others of the Caucus, the Duchess - on the way towards the palace of the King and Queen of Hearts. Unfortunately for her, the Knave of Hearts stole the Queen's tarts and Alice finds herself on trial for the crime. The courtroom is just as eccentric as the rest of Wonderland and the Queen's favourite sentence is beheading...but then Alice wakes up on a grassy bank, with her sister shaking her. It was all a dream...or was it?

FROM THE GROUP

The Players' first Panto, and what fun we had - but what hard work for the back stage crew, especially the Mad Hatters Tea Party.
Linda had her first major role as Alice and loved almost every minute of it. She learned to sing in tune and dance in time, much to her amazement.
Bob put on a dress as the Duchess, Ken poured himself into tights for the Dodo, Mary showed us her legs as the Knave of Hearts, Sam made her debut as a Fish Footman and everyone sang their hearts out.
We did a Matinee and how the children loved it. I know some people don't like Panto, but for the children it's often their first introduction to live theatre. Best to catch 'em young!
I loved directing this play. The energy generated on stage could be felt right to the back of the Hall.

Ann - Producer

The Players' first panto, and possibly one of the most significant turning points in the way we handled the backstage and technical. For the past few years, we had been concentrating on bringing the overall set quality and appearance up with stages like "Trivial Pursuits" and "Murder At The Vicarage", but this was the most artistic one yet. Not only that, but we had what seemed like a cast of hundreds, an unbelievable amount of props, music and dancing and plenty of lighting cues to worry about. All things that had been done before separately - the "Farndale" series, for example, were never short of props and action! - but not all at once. And where a "Farndale" is all about things going wrong and accuracy doesn't necessarily matter, this had to go very right...

Considering the very limited 'proper' stage time we got (a morning to build everything, then one Technical and one Dress rehearsal), it went very well. And, more valuably, it showed us what we could do with a stage if we put our minds to it. Ever since then, our sets and effects have been an integral and often deliberately ambitious part of the production, with time and budget set aside to make sure they work.
Mike - Set Design & Stage Manager

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