I went to see Alice in Wonderland at the New Vic Theatre on 19th November 2022.
Alice in Wonderland, originally written by Lewis Carroll, was adapted and directed by Theresa Heskins. It follows a young girl called Alice, who falls out of here own world and finds herself in some rather peculiar situations.
The play opens by showing us what Alice’s (Eleanor Fransch) life is like at home with her Mam and Dad, before taking us on a trip through a magician’s trapdoor into the mysterious world of Wonderland, where Alice encounters some peculiar characters, such as the Mad Hatter (Danielle Bird/Michael Hugo), the Cheshire Cat (Stasha Dukic) and the terrifying Red Queen (Purvi Parmar).
Eleanor Fransch gave a great performance as Alice, which really captivated the audience and helped us to follow Alice on this magical journey. This also helped us to connect to Alice and to share her feelings throughout the play. I also thought Purvi Parmar was exceptional as the Red Queen. She really made the audience dislike (and fear) her character and the audience were against her the whole way through.
In my opinion, one thing that could be improved is the scene lengths. There was a couple of scenes where I found it dragged on for a little longer than necessary and I started getting a little bit bored of what was going on and was wishing for it to move ahead. An example of this would be the final scene of Act 1, when we met Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Overall, I enjoyed the performance very much and I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. It has something in it for everyone and it is a great production to come and see with your entire family. I would recommend Alice in Wonderland to people of all ages.
This adaptation sounds intriguing, I'd like to know more about how the Red Queen managed to make you dislike her and how Alice captivated the audience - it makes me want to go and see it to find out for myself!