Theatre Review - THE CASTLE PLAYER'S ALICE IN WONDERLAND - BARNARD CASTLE

Alice (Lois Falshaw), Alice's Sister (Elizabeth Wheeler)
photo credit Helen Brown

The Castle Players, based in Barnard Castle, have a fantastic reputation across the region for producing high quality community theatre. Their productions range from winter touring shows in local village halls, a two-night production in the Autumn to develop new directors, regular readings in residential homes and their annual summer production in the grounds of the magnificent Bowes Museum. Supporters of The Castle Players have become used to the excellent productions of Shakespeare over the years. This year, for their 31^st Summer production, they have taken the brave decision to try something completely different with Alice in Wonderland.

Queen of Hearts (Bunny Forsyth)
photo credit Helen Brown

Opening with Lewis Carroll, Angus Wheeler, explains he is finishing writing the story of Alice and invites us to take the journey with Alice (Lois Falshaw). Through the journey we meet many of the familiar weird and wonderful characters, which include the frantic White Rabbit (Cal Baker), the slapstick of Tweedledee (Dan Richards) and Tweedledum (Jake Moore), the comedy of The Cook (Trudi Dixon) and The Duchess (Sam McCormack) and the terrifying Queen of Hearts (Bunny Forsyth) to name just a few.

Caterpillar (Rhonda Hart-Davis)
photo credit Helen Brown 

Mad Hatter (Ben Pearson), Queen of Hearts
(Bunny Forsyth) photo credit Helen Brown

After a steady start the larger than life, colourful characters just kept on flowing onto the stage. The Caucus Race was full of energy and exhausting to watch. Tweedledee and Tweedledum looked as if they were having great fun, during their scene of slapstick. The Caterpillar (Rhonda Hart-Davis) was absolutely wonderful, a stylish performance with one the best costumes of the night. The Mock Turtle (Gordon Duffy-McGhie) and the Gryphon (Andy Moorhouse) created a delightful partnership and a scene the cast and audience clearly enjoyed with the Lobster Quadrille. The Mad Hatter (Ben Pearson) was just as mad as you would expect, delighting the audience through every entrance.

The costumes are amazing, the team behind them have certainly worked their magic. You can also see how much love and passion has gone into creating the set and props.

There were two parts of the production which really stood out, firstly that was the community involvement, the show in its nature creates lots of smaller roles giving the large number of parts. The Castle Players have certainly embraced the words ‘community involvement’ it won’t be long before there are more people involved than they can fit in the audience. Finally, the true star of the night was Alice. WOW! Lois Falshaw truly became Alice and owned the stage. Such a confident and delightful performance. I am sure this is not the last we have seen of her on stage.

Alice (Lois Falshaw)
photo credit Helen Brown

Alice in Wonderland runs until Saturday 13^th July @19:30 with a Saturday matinee.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.castleplayers.co.uk, by telephone 01833-631107, or in person at The Witham, Barnard Castle.

  

Theatre Preview - ALICE IN WONDERLAND - BARNARD CASTLE

Roll up, roll up “We’re all mad here!”

The Castle Player’s summer production of Alice in Wonderland in the grounds of the Bowes Museum, promises to be an extravaganza of colourful costumes, music and crazy antics.

The huge cast of 52 ranges from the ages of 8 to 80 and includes some familiar faces and some new, all working hard to entertain us, supported by an army of set builders, prop makers, costume designers and make-up artists.

One of the youngest, 8-year-old Libby Forsyth, who is playing a canary in the production, will be joined by great-uncle and oldest member Nick Perkins. He will be playing the frustrated executioner to the Queen of Hearts and jokingly says “I’m longing to chop someone’s head off but don’t think I’m going to get the opportunity!”

                                                                                                                        

Tickets are now on sale for the show which will feature characters from both Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, such as the bumbling ‘mad’ Hatter, the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the Jabberwock with the ‘jaws that bite and claws that catch’, and the melancholy Mock Turtle who sings about ‘beau-ootiful soo-oop’ and dancing lobsters!

Director Dawn Trevor says “I’m hoping that when people come to see the show, whatever else is going on in their life, they forget about it for a few hours, and enjoy 52 people making fools of themselves!”

The show will run from July 10th - 13th and will include a Saturday matinee. Tickets can be purchased online at www.castleplayers.co.uk, by telephone 01833-631107, or in person at The Witham, Barnard Castle.