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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (1958)

by Lewis Carroll

Dramatised by Clemence Dane

Music by Richard Addinsell

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Production team

Musical director – Christine Jones
Director – Ian Hunt

Cast

Alice – Heather Ball
Crab – Terry Bayliss
Haigha/March Hare – Alan Bennett
Mock Turtle/Tweedledee – George Blair
Lobster – Anne Brain
Oyster – Pamela Bromwich
Queen of Hearts – Eileen Bunney
Lion/Cheshire Cat – Robert Collingridge
Knave of Hearts/White King – John Dillam
Secunda – Dorothy Fenner
Canary – Christine Ford
Oyster – Carolyn Gater
Seven of Spades – Henrietta Glaser
Dormouse – Natasha Glaser
Seven of Spades – Madeline Gorrill
Executioner – Philip Gorrill
Canary – Mary Grimbaldeston
Sheep – Joyce Hall
Lobster/Magpie/Five of Spades – Anne Harding
Gryphon – Jack Hooper
Mad Hatter/Hatta – Denis Hunt
Lory – Stella Hunt
Frog Footman – Barrington Jennings
Oyster – Prisilla John
Unicorn – Christine Jones
Mouse – Antony Leach
King of Hearts/Red King – Dennis Leach
Mouse – Rosalind Leach
Tweedledum/Caterpillar/Humpty Dumpty – Bertram Marks
Two of Spades/Duck – Gillian Marks
White Knight – Brian Olver
Lobster/Dodo – Joy Olver
Lobster – Janet Oscroft
Oyster – Sheila Pitt
Cook – Madge Robinson
White Rabbit – Phillip Rowlands
Fish Footman – Michael Ryan
Oyster – Valerie Spires
Oyster – Julie Toms
Prima – June Walters
Oyster – Miranda Warren
White Queen/Duchess – Pauline Wattis
Guinea Pig – Ann Witherington
Red Queen – Eleanor Zonik

Notes

The roles of Mouse and Seven of Spades were shared.

In the early morning of 9th January 1958, the Colonnade theatre was gutted by fire, only hours before the Loft pantomime Alice in Wonderland was due to open. As firemen fought to control the blaze, members of the company raced to the scene to salvage costumes and props for the show. At 10:00am an informal meeting of the company decided that the show must go on. The headmaster of Leamington Boys’ College offered the school’s Assembly Hall as a performance space, and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford, and Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre came forward with offers of costumes and props. At 7:30 that evening, the production opened on schedule and was enthusiastically received by an audience of 150. The show had indeed gone on.

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