CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS are a great excuse to take the family to a show.
There are many to choose from this festive season, including two classic tales with The Royal Ballet’s offering of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames.
James Kelly is the Wardrobe Supervisor for The Royal Ballet. He has enjoyed sewing since he was a child and always knew he wanted to pursue a career in costume, having been inspired by watching the old Hollywood greats
The workroom at the Royal Opera House is like an Aladdin’s cave with sparkling tutus, patterns and rails of costumes lined up proudly waiting to be tried on by dancers for their various roles.
The Royal Ballet's wardrobe maestro James KellyJames calmly oversees the production and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of each costume many of which date back many years.
Dressmaking runs in his family who come from the village Bruree, Co. Limerick. “My father had two aunts who were dressmakers, and on my mother’s side of the family too. Her mother was a milliner and her aunt a dressmaker so it’s there in my blood.”
His father had connections to the Duke of Westminster: “He worked as a telegram boy when he left school in 1945 and then got a job in the big house which was owned by Lady Ursula Vernon who was the Duke of Westminster's daughter. He started in the kitchen but was made butler when he was 17. He left service in 1951 when he moved to the UK.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a co-production between The Royal Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada.
James said that one of the main challenges is making the costumes work for two companies: “We have to make sure that they can be easily altered to fit the dancers in both companies. Also there are always dancers doing new roles so I have to work out what we are going to make new, and what they could fit into from the existing costumes.”
Choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, this production was The Royal Ballet’s first new full-length work since 1995. The set designed by Bob Crowley is colourful and exciting. All the well known characters from the book are in there including a tap dancing Mad Hatter.
Christmas is always a very hectic period for The Royal Ballet being one of the busiest times of the year. James is looking forward to “spending Christmas and Boxing Day quietly at home with my partner who also works at the Royal Opera House just relaxing, and watching old Hollywood Christmas films on the television.”
Composer Eamonn O’Dwyer is working alongside director Ciaran McConville on The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Rose Theatre, Kingston in this classic C.S Lewis story.
Composer Eamonn O'Dwyer from Co.ClareHe grew up in a musical household where sing-alongs around the piano were commonplace.
“It sounds like something out of The Waltons, but I do remember dad singing Irish folk songs after dinner, and we really would gather round the piano for carols at Christmas.
I was also a chorister at Westminster Cathedral from the age of seven, and that really introduced to me to a huge wealth of music.”
His father was born in Galway but grew up in Lahinch, Co. Clare.
Eamonn spent a lot of holidays there as a child and some of his earliest memories are of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.
He still has family in the area, Ennis and also Dublin.
“I did a show at the Bord Gais earlier this year,” he continues, “and one of my uncles rallied a huge load of second and third cousins I'd never even met to come along. That strong sense of Irish family never ceases to amaze me.”
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is a perfect family show, Eamonn argues, with its retelling of a battle between good and evil.
The stars of the show are a young company, and it is a story for young people told by young people: “There is such a magic in that, they make the most wonderful storytellers. They are joined by six professional actors who take the adult roles. The kids are learning so much just being in the room with our pros...It's really fantastic.”
Magical tales appeal to all ages and even the most cynical adult will find it hard not to be moved, he adds: “As adults, we all know what’s in the wardrobe, but that doesn’t diminish our joy of seeing Lucy and her siblings discovering it for the first time.”
The production is on until January 4 and before the curtain is down Eamonn is already thinking of his next project: “I am off to Dorset to write some music for a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
It is a gypsy retelling of the story, and I’m actually taking the lovely Wexford Carol as my musical starting point. After that, off to The Lyceum in Edinburgh for a new production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht. One of these days I'll get back over the water…”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, until January 16 2015, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, until January 4 2015, The Rose Theatre, Kingston
See More: Eamonn O’Dwyer, James Kelly
