GIGANTIC playing cards and shimmering toadstools, gently rolling grass and a backdrop of bare-boned trees, not to mention the one essential in any production of Alice, the rabbit hole - from the moment the audience took their seats they knew from the fabulous set that they were in for a treat.

Alice is, of course, a national treasure and Owen Calvert-Lyons, directing the Courtyard's Junior Youth Theatre in his first production for the Courtyard, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, remained faithful to the original, ensuring that all the best-loved characters made memorable appearances.

Alice, played confidently by Lucy Southall (blue cast), was exactly as Alice should be and the Mad Hatter's tea party was ... mad, with a particularly energetic March Hare (Lorna Saville) and endearing Dormouse (Lucie Rivers).

For the children in the audience, however, two moments lingered long after the curtain came down - a deliciously world-weary rendition of a Piaf-esque song, Cats and Dogs, by Mouse (Devun Rosser), and the revelation that the baby in the Duchess's capacious pram was not only real, but had turned into a small, very pink, Pig (Georgia Rowney) who jumped from the pram and ran squealing into the wings.