Crack’d Spoons follow the yellow-brick road

WEST Clare audiences will have five opportunities to delve into the fantasy world of pantomime in the coming days. Kilkee-based Crack’d Spoon Theatre Company will travel the length and breadth of west and south Clare with their presentation of The Wizard of Oz.
Three months of rehearsing for the cast of about 40 children and adults will come to fruition on Saturday at 3pm when the theatre in Kilkee library hosts the pantomime at 3pm. Last Saturday Kilkee Community Centre buzzed with adrenaline as children, adults and the back-stage crew prepared for one of their final pre-show rehearsals. 
“For the last couple of years, people have been coming and asking us when is it happening again? We’re just a local theatre group and they’re lining up to ask can they be in it. The children get a lot of fun out of it. Children have been rehearsing once a week and adults twice a week,” show director Breda Latham told The Clare Champion.
“We’ve a few shows under our belt at this stage but this is the first year we’re doing a lot of touring. Last year, we went to Kildysart as well as Kilkee and Kilrush but this year we’re going to Carrigaholt and Miltown too,” she added.
The show lasts for two hours while many of the children are playing multiple parts in the production.
“We wrote the script ourselves and they have so many little roles. When they are off stage, they’re changing again to get read for their next little piece. We wrote the script around who wanted to take part and as we see their rehearsals, we tried to write the children in to a role that suited them,” Breda explained.
Managing up to 30 children is fairly demanding but Breda says parental help has made that task much easier.
“It’s fairly challenging alright but the parents are great. Some of them have been helping out making costumes. We made all the costumes ourselves. The children themselves are also playing music for the show,” Breda added. The children will be playing the concertina, guitar and a keyboard.
Amongst the adults in the cast are Emma Troy (Dorothy), Mick Daly (The Lion), Bernard (Tinman), Simon Latham (The Scarecrow), Rob Hopkins (Wicked Witch), Nora Daly (Wicked Witch of the North), Siobhán Daly (Wicked Witch of the South) and Alan McNamara, who plays The Wizard of Oz.
The dates and venues for the five shows are as follows: Kilkee library this Saturday at 3pm; Teach Ceoil, Kilrush on Sunday at 3pm; Carrigaholt Community Centre on Friday January 18 at 7pm; Miltown Malbay at 3pm on Saturday, January 19 and Kildysart on Sunday, January 20.
“It’s not for massive profit or anything like that. It’s just to cover the cost so we can produce another show,” Breda Latham said of the admission.
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy lives on a farm in Kansas until a cyclone arrives, and picks her, her house, and her dog up and deposits them in the land of Oz. Things in Oz are strange and beautiful but Dorothy just wants to get back home. Here she meets some memorable friends and foes in her journey to meet the Wizard of Oz who everyone says can help her return home and possibly grant her new friends their goals of a brain, heart and courage. She’s helped by the Good Witch of the North, but she’s also in trouble with the Wicked Witch of the West, who seeks revenge for the death of her sister; the Wicked Witch of the East, for which she blames Dorothy.