Panto season arrives in Marown this week in an explosion of colour, magic and a host of extraordinary characters.

The Marown Youth and Community Players will begin their production of ’Alice In Wonderland’ from tonight (Thursday), and it promises to be an evening of singing, dancing, belly laughs and entertainment.

This promises to be a fairly non-typical re-telling of the classic Lewis Carroll tale.

The action begins when our heroine, Alice, played by Sophie Elliott, sees a snappily dressed white rabbit, played by Katie Wilson, holding a pocket watch. Curiosity getting the better of her, she follows it down the rabbit hole and she arrives tumbling into Wonderland, a place where nothing is as it seems, everyone and everything seems to be stark raving mad and things keep getting ’curiouser and curiouser’.

Very soon, she runs into some very familiar characters. The Mad Hatter (Lloyd Jones) baffles her with riddles at his tea party and she constantly runs into the grinning Cheshire Cat (David Butler) and the mystical Caterpillar (Heather Miles).

Then she falls foul of the petulant and temperamental Queen of Hearts, who screams ’Off with her head!’ at any given opportunity. Will the Knave of Spades (Graham Crowe) take over Wonderland, or will the Prince (Sam Bowers) marry his Princess (Amy Quayle) and lead us to a happy ending? And where exactly does the Panto Dame, played by Paul Craine, fit into the tale?

All will be revealed through the medium of song and dance and a barrage of audience participation, I’m sure.

Alison Lodge, who has assumed the dual role of panto villain and the producer of the Marown Youth and Community Players, says there will be more twists and turns as the play goes on.

’There is always a twist to the story, in a panto,’ she said. ’Alice in Wonderland doesn’t have a dame, but we do. Our Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum are larger than life, and the white rabbit is not as she seems. She is more of a character than a rabbit, with a lot of attitude.’

’I throw a few tantrums onstage when, as the Queen of Hearts, I don’t get my own way, and then there’s Alice. She has an unfortunate frock malfunction as well. The poor girl can’t get a decent frock from Strand Street.’

This is the 25th year the Marown Players have staged their annual half term pantomime, and Alison revealed that they try to outdo themselves each time.

’Our productions are growing each year,’ she said. ’We really have to push the boat out. We have extra lighting this year and we’ve got Tracey Harding, who is an amazing artist, painting our scenery. We’re just trying to think bigger and better year on year.

’The challenges are always the size of the stage. We’d love a bigger stage and a trap door, but we just don’t have one. The biggest challenge is thinking about big production numbers, because you have to pluck these things out of thin air.’

’Alice In Wonderland’ runs until this Saturday at Marown School, with each performance beginning at 7.30pm. Tickets are £8 each. Contact 410329 for more details.