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ALICE IN WONDERLAND

★★★★★

Brixton House

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ALICE IN WONDERLAND at Brixton House

★★★★★

“a breath-taking instant classic for the London festive season”

What is at the end of the Victoria line? Rap battles and the Jabberwocky.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a classic book beloved by children and adults alike. Finding a first edition copy is as rare as finding chicken teeth. Finding yet another stage adaptation that actually feels new and exciting proves more challenging. What Poltergeist and writer-director Jack Bradfield have achieved with this unapologetic adaptation is jaw dropping. Alice in Wonderland is one and a half hours of boundary-busting theatre made by Londoners for Londoners. This iteration of the well-known story is so perfect in concept and execution that it makes you wonder why it hasn’t been done before.

Set in current day Brixton, 11-year-old Alice (Tatenda Matsvai) has a fight with her mum (Cheyenne Dasri) in Brixton tube station and jumps onto the Victoria line by herself. This sets off a tube journey into the world of nonsense where Alice realises that she is trapped on a train with the inhabitants of Wonderland. We meet familiar characters such as the White Rabbit, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and many more. In addition, we also meet people who Londoners will recognise instantly. This includes the commuters, ‘undergounders’ who have been on the tube for so long that they have lost their souls. The cast do an astounding job multi-rolling; their transitions are so smooth that you might only notice they are playing multiple roles in the second act. A standout here is Gavin Dunn who impressively alters his voice and physicality between playing The Rabbit, The Pigeon and Hammersmith (Yes, like the tube station – you need to see it to believe it).

Lyricist and Rapperturg, Gerel Falconer has created songs with composer and sound designer Alice Boyd that breathes new life into the familiar story, making space for this iteration to distinguish its own language. The audience is treated to rap solos and rap battles between characters, reminding us that London is a cultural wonderland. The composition of the sounds of Brixton and the underground are so clean that you can eat your dinner from it. A total treat for the ears! (Not only bunny ears).

‘Overgounder’ Alice travels down a rabbit hole of bottomless London Underground puns and immersive set design (Shankho Chaudhuri). You enter the theatre, and you are met by a recreation of a Victoria line carriage. The benches are covered in Victoria line fabric and the wall boasts posters like ‘The Jabberwocky is watching‘ and ‘See it, slay it, sorted’, immediately enforcing the idea that this is no ordinary tube line. The stage has a catwalk layout with the audience on either side. An entrance and exit on either end of the catwalk creates the illusion that the train has no beginning or an end. It is from these boundless tunnels that new and familiar characters emerge, creating expectation for what else is to come. It is impressive how well the set design is integrated into the script with trap doors that lead to the ominous wasteland ‘The Gap’ and lowering light rigs that become the tops of train carriages. The composition between lights, sound and set within the story is so clever and funny that you only need to sit back and enjoy this feast of a performance.

How will Alice ever escape the tube in time for Christmas? With rap battles, sword fights and dance breaks, Alice in Wonderland is a breath-taking instant classic for the London festive season. I wish more London theatre makers could embrace ridiculous ideas and execute them as flawlessly as this. All aboard for this highly imaginative, hilarious, and exhilarating tube journey down the Brixton rabbit hole!


ALICE IN WONDERLAND at Brixton House

Reviewed on 26th November 2024

by Lara van Huyssteen

Photography by Helen Murray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More reviews by Lara:

THE SNOWMAN | ★★★★ | PEACOCK THEATRE | November 2024
GOING FOR GOLD | ★★★★ | PARK THEATRE | November 2024

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

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NOW, I SEE

★★★★

Theatre Royal Stratford East

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NOW, I SEE at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

★★★★

“All three actors have wonderful chemistry together, expressing a totally believable fraternal bond.”

Movement in theatre can often feel forced in an attempt to be Avant Garde. Cringe-inducing lyrical movement to show passion or staccato twitching under strobe to show something dark. In Now I See, Lanre Malaolu’s second play in what will be a trilogy as writer, director and movement director, modern black British masculinity is explored in a style of storytelling that naturally and organically interweaves narrative and movement to enhance the drama.

Set at the funeral of one of three brothers, the play is mostly a two hander between the remaining siblings, interspersed with flashbacks to a youth spent playing rough, making up dance routines, and impersonating the Power Rangers. A low-res hum of afro beats provides constant background music (sound design Pär Carlsson), cut with contemporary Black British pop and R&B to accompany some of the more involved moments of movement. Kieron (Oliver Alvin-Wilson) and Dayo (Nnabiko Ejimofor) appear not to have had much of a relationship in recent years, the cause for which is side stepped around and never addressed head on. What is clear is that the onset of sickle cell anaemia for their brother, Adeyeye (Tendai Humphrey Sitima) led to the issues between the brothers and the rest of the family. It’s fitting, then, that the remembrance of Adeyeye’s life should act as a healing experience for them.

 

 

Malaolu’s movement expresses emotion – joy, pain, relief – where words fail; enhancing the drama, rather than distracting. Set and staging (Igrid Hu) further complement the movement with a recurring rippling motif extending from drapery across the proscenium arch through to water filling a perspex coffin ever present downstage. In one particularly effective moment Alvin-Wilson as Kieron describes a dream he has had about a bird, a metaphor for his own deep buried pain. Under dim lighting, Nnabiko Ejimofor crosses down stage as the bird, taking slow timid steps before his movement becomes larger and more erratic, visualising the nightmarish quality of Kieron’s dream sequence.

All three actors have wonderful chemistry together, expressing a totally believable fraternal bond. Alvin-Wilson is the gruff, strong man. The eldest brother ground down by life. Who has hardened his exterior to protect against the cruel world and bad luck he has been dealt. Ejimofor is younger, more hopeful, trusting. He embodies the bookish stereotype of a man in touch with his emotions and perceptive to those of others. Tendai Humphrey Sitima as Adeyeye is largely silent in his role as the deceased brother, other than for occasional voice overs. This makes his perhaps the most difficult role of the three, never off stage but hardly at the centre of the drama; a constant presence circling his brothers haunting them or being haunted by them.

This all seems rather dark, but the cast seems to be enjoying themselves so much delivering the witty lines that more than once more than one actor can’t hold it together. Malaolu’s early successes may have been through movement and dance but this piece shows his talents as a writer, despite a slightly over indulgent climactic clash between the brothers in the second act. The script is surprisingly funny and warm for a play about grief and family trauma. But it’s through the smart delivery that the specificity written into the characters comes to life.


NOW, I SEE at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

Reviewed on 16th May 2024

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Camilla Greenwell

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

CHEEKY LITTLE BROWN | ★★★½ | April 2024
THE BIG LIFE | ★★★★★ | February 2024
BEAUTIFUL THING | ★★★★★ | September 2023

NOW I SEE

NOW I SEE

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