fbpx

Curiouser and curiouser: Theatre Society takes on Alice in Wonderland in Skit Night

03 Jun 2022

Basil Dore
Campion Theatre Society Media Rep

 

The 2022 Skit Night was a night of good fun, wacky ideas and utter nonsense.

This year's theme was 'A Night in Wonderland', continuing Campion Theatre Society's annual tradition of running an original skit show in semester one.

Society members took themes and characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and rewrote them into a series of skits, combined with non-naturalistic theatre.

All four skits involved nonsensical characters and motivations, making for bizarre and hilarious plots, which aimed to be as untraditional and original as possible.

The first skit was called "Lewis' Grand Old Time," which distorted the characters and broke the fourth wall numerous times by placing Lewis Carrol's editor within the story in order to clean it up.

The second skit (and favourite of the night) centred on a tea party, instigated by a Mad Hatter-inspired character, who tricked a number of regular people to attend, with hilarity ensuing.

The third skit also focussed on the tea party, although rewritten with many characters from Alice in Wonderland, involving a lost Alice having to find herself within herself.

The fourth and final skit was particularly nonsensical and embraced a circular plot, in which every time Alice ate or drank something the skit would appear to begin again, but her personality would change. Throughout the performance, Alice would try to find purpose or meaning, yet the other characters - the Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat and March Hare - would only respond with nonsense.

Each major skit was punctuated by a shorter performance featuring a father ('Mr Dad') telling a different story to his children (and a barber, at one point).

The night was fun, hilarious, enjoyable and downright confusing.

The original skits were received well, and all performers should be congratulated on playing their characters (and memorising their lines) so well. The Theatre Society would also like to thank the backstage crew for pulling everything together behind the scenes.

Lastly, congratulations should go to the Theatre Society executive team (Abbey Pereira, Nicholas Brennan and Kate Harrison) for organising the event, finding a venue at the last minute due to weather concerns and making it a wonderful night for all!

Thanks to Thomas Power for the photos (below).