ALICE IN WONDERLAND
by Lewis Carroll, adapted by Ian R.Wallace
Music by Christopher Hobbs
December 1968
“Alice in Wonderland is an adventurous play for an amateur group [and it] had its successes and its failures. …
“Successes were individual and numerous. Jacquie Russell, in her first appearance with the group, was outstanding as the Duchess: all riding-boots and Roedean. She attacked her part, her colleagues and her audience with great gusto and a confidence that smacked of experience and capability. …
“Margaret Tweedy … was delightfully Tenniel-like as Alice. … Neil Saunders … was splendidly neurotic as the harassed White Rabbit, and Len Evans was accomplished in support as the rustic Bill Lizard and the Irish Five of Spades. … Notable also was the young Dormouse played by Clive Saunders who doubled as the Two of Spades. … in addition to his direction and script-work, Ian Wallace took two key roles, the antiquarian and lachromose Mock Turtle, and the effete and Muggeridgey Caterpillar …
“…an ingenious, all-purpose, skeleton set, into which pre-fabricated segments could be slotted to suggest a different scene. … This worked well and, on occasion, very well … but the fantasy element … was somehow lost. …
“…It wasn't the fault of Ian Wallace's adaption or direction. It was simply the fault of circumstance, the inevitable concomitant of a stage translation…”
AJW : HARROW OBSERVER & GAZETTE : December 1968
