Trapped by their memory loss and delusion, the Mad Hatter (played by James Hyland) and The March Hare (played by Joshua J. Jewkes) are stuck in an eternal wait for 6 o’clock, armed with gone-off milk and a table-that-is-not-really-a-table. By inviting the audience into the tea party, we are led down the rabbit hole with them both, taken on a journey that blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality. The outlandish Mad Hatter contrasts well with the seemingly more grounded March Hare, who attempts to reject the madness of Wonderland, although never quite manages to leave. An absurdist show in nature, Hyland uses a dormouse puppet and linguistic nonsense to consider the human condition, and how loneliness, loss, and grief can affect the mind. All sense of time and reality fades away in this performance.
The underlying messages behind this tale are less obvious than in Hyland’s past performances, though perhaps that can be attributed to the absurdist style. The audience sits with the Mad Hatter and March Hare in their madness, and whilst intentional, the lack of story arc and repetitive motions can be trickier to follow. You leave this engaging show with a sense of confusion, unable to fully explain what you have just observed, though knowing that you had an entertaining evening. With a dance interlude from Alison (or Alice-son), this hour performance is an acquired taste, and can be accurately described as weird and wonderful!
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