Blists Hill Alice Weekend
The Victorian town at Blists Hill museum organised an Alice day at the end of August. Keith gave a talk on ‘Was Alice a Real girl’ in the schoolroom and Daresbury Alice, Thalia Thompson (left) came along to assist and to take part in the events. The day was fine, which in this summer was a miracle! The event was quite well attended and there is no doubt that the ‘Alice’ event at Blists hill is the best attended ‘Alice’ event in the UK. Despite the numbers, because of the size of the venue, it never appears crowded.
Kaleidoscope theatre from Kemberton Hall were there and gave performances of their version of ‘Alice’ as did the Blists Hill actors who were present all day in costume. This is Thalia with the Kaleidoscope actors. (Later on in the year we were privileged to be invited to Kemberton Hall’s open day and had an enjoyable outing with their actors and supporters.)
www.kaleidoscope-theatre.org
The team from Blists Hill (left) gave excellent performances as they do every time we visit. When we called in later in the year the Hatter was playing Sherlock Holmes, the Queen was Mrs. Hudson, his housekeeper, and the King was Dr. Watson. The sketch they played then was extremely well received and very amusing since they were playing it for the comedy of course.
The winner of the Alice competition, Jezabella, seen here on the far left, was with her friend who is on the right of the picture. The two youngsters live in the same road as each other.
The picture also shows Thalia, Daresbury Alice, in the centre with Blist’s Hill Alice and their Edith (Liddell) in the yellow dress.
The dressing up competition had some very interesting entries, one of which was this teapot/dormouse outfit which everyone thought was very innovative.
It is hoped that next year we may be able to arrange for the UK Lewis Carroll Society to visit Blists Hill as the ‘Alice’ event is being staged. Preliminary investigations into the feasibility of this idea are under way. The venue is a Victorian town complete with shops, as above, and on occasions a passing coach can be seen in the streets carrying the King and Queen!