Everyone knows the story of The Wizard of Oz, but you don't know it quite like this. A fresh take on the tale of Dorothy and friends, this play completely restructures and twists the classic. During her birthday, Dorothy is consumed by her dream world, leaving her siblings and Aunt to squabble and piece together the mysterious truth about Dorothy and her land of Oz.
The piece is well written and at points humorous, but unfortunately a little slow to progress.
This play turned out to be much darker than I ever expected; it only gets darker as the truth that the characters are hiding comes out. Lots of new characters have been introduced and this makes it a little complex, but everything eventually pieces together like a mystery novel. Reality and the dream world are not as they seem.
There was clever use of props throughout the show. The opening scene involves no dialogue, just the use of props such as a coat, hat and bunch of flowers, which convey the circumstances well. Additionally props, costume and lighting were subtly used to inform the audience which of the characters represented whom from the original. For example, the sassy character that represented the Lion had ‘ROAR’ written across the back of his trousers in diamante.
The piece is well written and at points humorous, but unfortunately a little slow to progress. Sometimes the actors weren't very expressive or let their characters drop slightly, not entirely doing the script justice. In particular, some of the argument scenes were a little unconvincing. The cast also had an unfortunate tendency to talk too quickly or with their backs to part of the audience. Despite this, the concept and script are largely very clever and it unfolds a bit like a soap opera, filled with drama and moving towards a sensational finish.
