Spellbinding musical full of heart and humour
Geoff Aymer has kept the spirit of Lewis Carroll’s classic fantasy novel to deliver a musical with a modern twist about identity and courage, writes Barbara Buchanan.
The show opens with Alice in a shopping mall at Christmas, lost in a TikTok social media world. When her brother Stefan turns up and asks her where the family’s shopping is, she’s clueless. He confiscates her phone. The security guard emerges with their trolley and tells them to leave before they’re locked in.
Alice (Carma Hylton) takes the lift and is transported into a land where inanimate objects like doors and chairs talk. She has to survive on her wits to navigate a world of weird and wonderful insentient and amorphous beings.
Hylton effortlessly changes gears from the falsely confident Alice to a thoughtful adolescent who has to draw on her own resources to confront a series of nonsensical problems.
Her transformation begins when she encounters the hubbly bubbly smoking caterpillar (Oscar Sinclair) who entreats her to “pause and ponder” and “ponder and pause”. He tests her with riddles from his GCSE enigma scroll, encouraging her to draw on her grey matter: “No problem is impossible, think it through and bit by bit you’ll get the clues”.
Aymer’s dialogue is skilfully crafted with memorable phrases such as the Mad Hatter’s preferred words for ‘crazy’ as “mentally unshackled”.
Chesh (Siphiwo Mahlentle) plays a captivating Cheshire cat, grinning, giggling, flicking his tail and hopping around the stage in mischievous poses as the stress-free dude. He croons that no problem is ever worth becoming manic about in a magnetic soul song.
Hatter (Alexander Joseph) with gold chain and Del Boy jacket, lined with every type of tea from oolong to breakfast brew, creates a raucous tea jam. The Young Company’s fluid reggae moves, punctuated with back flips and cartwheels, give the party a special energy.
Oscar Sinclair morphs into the capricious chess-loving Queen of Hearts dressed in a cropped red quilted jacket and Jean Paul Gautier crinoline cage. He struts around and pouts, threatening to cut off everyone’s head in a scary The Devil Wears Prada way.
Ruth Badila’s chessboard stage works well with the silver foil lift elevated on a podium in front of a backdrop of white drapes, where a kaleidoscope of scenes is projected.
This musical is full of humour and heart with original songs by Jordan Xavier and skilful choreography by Shakeil Edwards. Director Suzann McLean has channelled the talent and energy of the Young Company to deliver an audience-friendly show with the message that the answer lies within, not on your smartphone.
Theatre Peckham, 221 Havil Street, London SE5 7SB until 23rd of December.
Booking and full details: www.theatrepeckham.co.uk or 020 7708 5401.
