Alice

This was a very individual take on the classic tale of 'Alice in Wonderland' which attempted to provide a contemporary framing context for Alice's strange journey. Unfortunately, the production was more 'alas' than 'Alice', as Oswaldtwistle Players struggled in their attempts to breathe life into this incredibly limp - and long-winded - version of the classic story. This banal production was humourless and rambling and managed solely to achieve something I would have hitherto thought impossible - a drab, dreary and deathly version of 'Alice in Wonderland'. In attempting to add a contemporary 'relevance' to the story, Laura Wade's script succeeded in trivialising the themes she presumably wished to highlight, resulting in a play which came across like a rather feeble Year 9 Drama lesson in its attempts at sending out a worthy message. This was a shame, as the company had clearly tried hard to breathe life into 'Alice': unfortunately, the play resisted all attempts at resuscitation despite their best efforts.

The curtain opened to reveal the wake for Alice's brother who has been killed in a car accident, this incident having plunged her into a particularly nasty slough of teenage angst and despair, prompting an existential trip into the 'Wonderland' of her troubled teen psyche. Alice then meets the familiar figures from Lewis Carroll's story, most of whom bear an uncanny resemblance to Alice's family and friends from the wake at the opening of the show (you get the idea!), the experience ultimately bringing her back to reality a wiser person.

The multiplicity of scenes and set changes were handled well and didn't impede the flow of the narrative, with some excellent work from the stage team and lighting, particularly in the 'eat me'/'drink me' episode. Costumes were good and added much to the feel of the piece and the relatively spare staging (black cloths abounded) created a suitably dreamlike atmosphere for Alice's trip through Wonderland.

Unfortunately, the various parts of the play really didn't come together to create an engaging, thoughtful or entertaining whole. Scenes seemed to be incredibly flat, ponderous and never-ending; the supposed framing device of Alice's unresolved grief as the reason for her trip came across as crass, forced and somewhat bolted-on rather than adding anything to the 'Alice' story; performances seemed hemmed in by the need to deliver flat and uninteresting dialogue. This last point in particular perhaps helps to explain the lifeless atmosphere throughout the evening as it seemed as though the desire to give the story an earnest and contemporary veneer had the effect of sucking the life out of the whole production. As a result, the cast seemed to fall back on a series of lazy performance tics to while away the boredom: for example, Alice pushing the hair out of her eyes became distracting and irritating after 5 minutes - 2 hours later it had become positively infuriating! Unfortunately, Alice's brother Joe's death by car crash inadvertently provided a metaphorical analogy for the whole show.

That said, there were a few worthwhile things to take from the production. Maddie Knight has to be congratulated if only for sheer stamina in ploughing through the evening as Alice without ever leaving the stage. Rebecca Ashton as the Knave of Hearts gave an engagingly watchable performance and impressed with her every appearance. Stealing the show from under the noses of everyone else on stage however was the Queen's hedgehog (Cian Bamford?) whose lively engagement with everything that was happening on stage drew the eye and cheered the soul. For the most part however, it seemed that director Gayle Knight and her cast were stymied by the source material and struggled to make anything worthwhile of their version of 'Alice'. It will be interesting to return to Oswaldtwistle Players' next production when they will be no doubt be back on top form. My thanks go to the society for the kind invitation to attend the production and I wish you all well with 'Blood Brothers'.

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