A magical show in Leamington this weekend

Dr Jephson’s Players are performing a one-hour production of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland at 7.30pm, with additional showings tomorrow (Saturday).

Producer Trevor Humphries, who also takes on the role of narrator, said: “Alice in Wonderland is utterly mad and surreal. The language is very strange - it’s hard to believe it was written by a mathematician. It was as though he escaped from all that by writing this amazing fantasy.

“Although it’s a children’s book, there is something about the language that has led some people to believe he was under the influence of drugs.

“All the same, it remains magical and it’s a different experience to see the words spoken by people to reading them on the page. It has elements of a children’s nursery rhyme.”

And the group has been having great fun creating props. Trevor said: “For the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party we have made an enormous pot out of cane and paper and huge teacups and saucers and big artificial brightly coloured cakes. It’s all very bizarre and imaginative.

“We hope people will enjoy the spectacle as well as the sounds.”

Dr Jephson’s Players have been entertaining audiences in the Leamington park every summer since 1999, while on occasion, members also run indoor winter productions. Pub-goers may recall seeing them in action during December when they staged an ‘around the pubs potted panto’ to raise money for Oxfam, while for Hallowe’en this year they are hoping to run a ghost walk in Jephson Gardens.

Trevor, who has been in the group since it formed, said: “We are a true community group, since all comers are welcome - no one is ever refused a part.”

Alice in Wonderland is on tonight at 7.30pm and tomorrow at 3pm and 7.30pm. The performance is free to attend, but there will be no seating provided so people should bring a blanket or fold-up chair. For further details, call Trevor on 887838.