Alice in Wonderland

 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is a well-known classic children’s story written by Charles L Dodgson under the pen name of Lewis Carroll.  It has been adapted many times into plays, a full-length animated musical Disney film and most recently a movie starring Johnny Depp.  This production, by Sleaford Little Theatre, has been adapted by Kei Bailey who has added his own unique charm to this well-loved story while still staying true to the original novel. 

Our story starts with the narrator, in this case The Chesire Cat (Paige Ruddlesdin), who interacted directly with the audience as she introduced a host of anthropomorphic characters the bizarre inhabitants of Wonderland. We see various creatures each bearing an indication of their animal character: The Frog (Karen Lamming in her debut role) had huge eyes on the top of her hat, The Dodo (Craig Pakes) had large white feathery wings, The Parrot (Russell Hopkin) and the timid little Guinea Pig (Emma Hoare). They are a bizarre hybrid of human and animal which gives us an indication that Wonderland is a very strange place.  

We see Alice (who on the night we went was played by Scarlett Long) dozing on a raised grassy platform who suddenly is surprised to see a strange creature muttering to himself.  This is The White Rabbit (Kim Sands) and out of pure curiosity Alice goes to follow him pursuing him down the rabbit hole.  Alice eventually finds herself in a wood panelled room not what one would expect at the bottom of a rabbit hole!    She spots a tiny door and peeks through to see a beautiful garden but at her current height cannot gain access. 

Throughout the proceedings, the Cheshire Cat furnishes Alice with all the required props including a table and a small bottle with a label saying, ‘drink me’ while seamlessly narrating.  Alice drinks the drink (after first ruminating over whether it may be poisonous) and instantly ‘shrinks.’  Now Alice can enter through the tiny door but there is a problem – she has left the key to the door on the table!  Next the Cheshire Cat furnishes her with a tiny box with a label saying, ‘eat me’ which makes Alice grow rapidly in size.  Frustrated at her situation, Alice bursts into hopeless tears (which due to her increased size) soon becomes a raging torrent.  The Chesire Cat creates this effect by draping lengths of blue silk representing the ‘pool of tears’.  Gradually, Alice starts to shrink again getting smaller and smaller and then accidentally slips into the water.

While swimming, she comes across The Dormouse (Colette Buchanan-Gray) who humorously swims back-stroke studiously ignoring Alice’s questions.   Alice thinking The Dormouse may not speak English and remembering the only French phrase she knows asks: ‘Ou est ma chatte?’   Horrified about the subject of cats The Dormouse scolds Alice and swims away leaving Alice to contemplate a watery death in a pool of her own tears.  

The variety of animal characters reappear also soaked from the swim and needing to dry themselves.  They decide they must have a race - A Caucus Race and they all run around the stage following which the Dodo declares they are all winners. 

Alice’s adventures continue as she meets a host of bizarre characters including the maudlin mock turtle crying mock tears (Nigel Guilliatt) wearing a khaki backpack for a shell and cow horns on his flat cap who together with the Gryphon (Andrew Charlton in his debut role with the group) perform the ‘Lobster Quadrille.’  The White Rabbit reappears and mistakes poor Alice for a housemaid Mary Anne.  

Alice next meets The Caterpillar (Hayley Goymer) an imperious haughty creature carrying a mushroom parasol, her purple dress gathered to resemble a caterpillar’s body.  She scolds Alice, but is a voice of reason in among the madness.  The Caterpillar offers her a mushroom which she tells her will change her size again.  Alice, however, offends The Caterpillar by saying that ‘3 inches is a wretched size’ which is the exact size of The Caterpillar who huffily stalks off.   

A lovely performance from Joanne Moules (also playing a dual role as the duck) as the over-bearing Duchess throwing her baby around and wittily bantering with the audience while ably assisted by the pepper obsessed Cook.  I loved the quick change of baby to pig and the reference to Peppa Pig!  Also, a scene stealing performance from Jo Warrick as the psychotic psychopathic Queen of Hearts riding in on her hobby horse and threatening decapitation accompanied by Tony Gordon as the King of Hearts and Rob Norris as the Executioner.   Tweedledum (Amanda Grant) and Tweedledee (Laura Davies) played their parts well maintaining a suitably disturbing stare and added some comedy with their mock fighting and arguing. 

Alice finally gets to talk to the Chesire Cat who playfully informs her that, ‘We’re all mad here’ and Alice continues to be swept along by all the ridiculousness.   Then we have the appearance of the most iconic characters from the Wonderland classic and the maddest of them all.  The Mad Hatter, a fabulous performance from Andy Canadine who played the role with the gravitas of a Shakespearean actor and a very different character from his role as Macbeth!  This Hatter was eccentric, argumentative and teetering on the edge of insanity but played perfectly straight, and this is what worked well particularly after all the bizarre characters we had already met.  He was accompanied by the foppish tea obsessed March Hare (Kei Bailey) with his argyll socks and twitching nose, furry ears protruding from his straw boater, and the sleepy treacle obsessed Dormouse. 

Their scenes were a real highlight bringing on an assortment of mismatched chairs, a tea trolley laden with crockery and most impressive of all the gravity defying dining table.  One of the funniest parts of the show was when they assembled the tea scene only to realise, they were facing the wrong way and hilariously breaking the fourth wall by finally acknowledging the audience.   Poor Alice tries desperately to reason with them, but their warped logic leaves poor Alice perplexed and her looking like the mad one.    

Other fun scenes were the ‘Walrus and the Carpenter’ a lovely performance from Logan Leonard as the Carpenter (who also played The Knave of Hearts) and Craig Pakes as a Walrus with whiskers on his hat sneakily sucking up oysters in his handkerchief while smiling knowingly at the audience.  Another highlight was the croquet game with stuffed furry hedgehogs for balls and plastic pink flamingos for mallets while the playing cards formed the hoops, and The Queen of Hearts shamelessly cheated at every opportunity.

The scenery was beautifully detailed with scenes from the original story and this theme had been continued into the auditorium and foyer with little touches such as crockery and tiny bottles all adding to the overall ambience.  I liked the shelf where the Cheshire Cat sat observing proceedings and the grassy steps which served as the throne room.  Lighting was used effectively using a glitter ball to cast a myriad swirling pattern over the stage to represent the dream like quality.  Scene changes were slick and largely operated seamlessly with panels sliding into position to represent each background.

The use of face paint in creating the animal characters provided by Katie Calo was beautifully detailed and the costuming was excellent.  I loved the overall effect created using tails, wings, ears and false eyes these additions enhanced the characters and didn’t obscure their facial expressions.  Alice’s plain muslin dress was set off with an Alice blue bow and a matching blue hair ribbon and shiny patent shoes a contrast to the colourful character surrounding her.

Special mention to Jo Warrick who was fantastic as The Queen of Hearts, dressed in black, white and red with playing cards around her collar, she was pitch perfect as the child-like despot swinging in moods at the drop of a top hat.   Also, to Collette as The Dormouse who got the opportunity to display her talent for accents and Paige as the Chesire Cat whose facial expressions, body language and hand gestures were a delight.  

Finally, our heroine Alice, a mature, self-assured performance from Scarlett who held her own with all the madness going on around her and the talents of more experienced actors.  She interacted with all the Wonderland inhabitants beautifully while delivering her own internal monologue.  A massive part to tackle but she rose to the challenge and told the story confidently.

Congratulations to director Oliver Guilliatt and his talented team of creatives (including Assistant Director and Stage Director Charlotte Shearsby) and anyone who contributed behind the scenes particularly Kelly Warran (who is another newcomer to the group) for a journey down the rabbit hole and the topsy-turvy world of Wonderland. Thank you for the warm welcome, it was lovely to meet writer and actor Kei Bailey and some of the cast after the show.  Well done for adapting and tackling such a convoluted story while keeping it entertaining for the audience and including some fun modern twists.

 

 

 

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