Running Time: 30 mins
Alice In Wonderland is a British play performed by Findlay House, and is a retelling of the classic story about a young girl who falls down a hole into the magical, bizarre and wondrous world of Wonderland.
This was a lot of fun to watch. It’s an all-round very well put-together play, with great acting, an entertaining script, good-looking set design and costumes, as well as some unique takes on the original story, not only treating it in a comedic way, but also looking at some of the more psychedelic aspects of the classic story.
Let’s start with the performances. All round, they were very convincing and successfully hyperbolic. Alice was a nice enough character, but seemingly not as naive as in the original story, so it was interesting to see her portrayed as someone stronger, whilst the Queen was ear-piercingly insane, but still a lot of fun to see on stage.
The structure of the play was also very well done. It’s a simple story, but there was some brilliant transitioning between scenes throughout, and it definitely kept my interest as it moved along very swiftly. I was most impressed by the first scene of the play, which was a strangely eerie but doubtlessly attention-grabbing opening.
Also, this was a very colourful, vibrant play. Much like the Disney film, it was really pleasant to look at, and (especially in a room that’s pretty dark) worked fantastically well in making it feel a lot like the real Wonderland, thanks to some brilliant direction from Angelica Way, Adam Zinkin and Ben Bauman.
The only problem that I did have with this play was that it did at times have some slight tonal inconsistencies. Of course, the blend between comedy and drama was unique and interesting, however it was often a bit of an unpleasant and unconvincing transition between the two genres, which confused me a bit. (There were also some annoying lighting issues, but I’ll gloss over that).
Overall, this gets a 7.5, because it was an interesting, very entertaining and different take on a beloved story.
(Alex Walker also did something. This is his namedrop.)
