Alice in Wonderland

The fantasy novel written by Lewis Carroll in the mid-1860s was originally entitled ‘Alice’s Adventures Under Ground’ and provided his own vision of Wonderland and its inhabitants, including talking animals and non sensical ideas. KTG’s stage version had been cleverly adapted by Anthony Stuart-Hicks, especially for the company, with ideas provided by a talented debutant director Rebekah Bott. The main characters are familiar; Alice has always been a day dreamer, she meets the White Rabbit, the dangerous Queen of Hearts, a curious Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and many others along the way.

An early engagement with the audience is always a good way to start and in that you could not ask for more than Joanna Hughes’ Queen of Hearts, relishing in and inviting the audience to respond loudly to her evil ways – a superb character and Joanna had a great singing voice too, although we had to wait till Act 2 for that. After a powerful opening number from a beautifully dressed ensemble we meet Alice played by Lottie Heels; a sweet endearing character who also demonstrated a great voice with ‘Good Morning Wonderland’. Alice’s friend Reggie played by Charlie Green, kicked off with the first of many amusing corny jokes throughout the evening. However, a little later, his rich smooth voice accompanying the young Harlequin Stage School dancers aged between 4 and 10 years with ‘Welcome to Wonderland’, had the audience spellbound.

Creating a link throughout the show, Rupert the White Rabbit, played for all it was worth, which was a lot, by Pete Coxhead, allows Alice to join the Unbirthday party for the Queen of Hearts and down the rabbit hole they go. Pete had a quick fire but natural delivery of dialogue which the audience relished. Laura Fullelove as an endearing and mischievous Dormouse, led the ensemble with a strong ‘Boogie Wonderland’ and I also enjoyed Rob Brown’s opening number as the Duchess ‘Fabulous Baby’ backed by four talking flowers; Ivy (Sarah Gilhooly), Tiger Lil (Claire Hemingway), Daff (Jennifer Brinton) and Posey (Ella Holland) – polished performances throughout. Rob gave the Duchess the full treatment, a strong presence and great comedy timing.

Along the way Alice meets the wise Caterpillar (fantastic costume well handled) played well by Ellie Doughty and the curious Cheshire Cat played with great panache by Matthew Heels, with a voice to match.  We are taken to the Duchess and her ‘Bake Off’ tent, where in addition to the Dormouse, the Mad Hatter (Maria Stafford) and the March Hare (Cath Skyrme) try to help the Duchess prepare, unsuccessfully, jam tarts for the Queen. Both Maria and Cath create completely zany characters which were just right. Following a great song and dance number ‘Ice Cream’ by the Harlequin Junior students which provided the greatest aarr factor of the night, the Act concluded with another polished number from the ensemble ‘It’s the party of a lifetime’ – a personal reminder of  the musical ‘Charlie Girl’.

In Act 2, the tea party is held – chaotic, but enjoyable – with a clever sequence involving about every chocolate bar you could imagine. Reggie returned singing a glorious ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ and the Cheshire Cat led a very funny scene based on ‘Play your cards right’. I would also add that in the relatively minor roles of Nanny and King, both Helen Lowe and Jason Beard respectively, demonstrated there was not a weak link in the show.

The script worked well embellished with up to date references to Rishi Sunak’s seat belt fine and Harry’s book ‘Spare’!  The band of five were wholly supportive and with one small exception unobtrusive. The open set remained so throughout the performance which enhanced continuity with sound and lighting spot on. Scenes were also enhanced with some impressive pieces including for example the Mystical Maze and ice cream cart. Some excellent costumes also underlined the work that had been involved with bringing this production to the stage with which director Rebekah Bott should be rightly proud.

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