ARCHIVE NOTE: This review was for the 2017 cast. Originally reviewed in August 2017.
UK based Carrollians…. if it tours near you, please go and see this….
After a long absence I finally got to see this version again for the first time since its 2009 premiere! Has it changed for the better? In short- yes. And then some.
Indoor or outdoor, professional (or in this case) semi-professional, a good adaptation of Looking-Glass should make you feel like the first time you read the book. And with that Quantum completely succeeds. Its remarkable how this 3 piece company manage to convey everything (and I mean everything, no scene is left out!) from Carroll’s novel. This version feels very handmade in terms of staging, with one wooden rectangle doubling up as a mirror, a train carriage, a table, a door, even a boat. 3 actors and limited instruments also add to the chamber feel of this adaptation. Indeed, the music motif which runs throughout the play (which is “to the looking-Glass world…”) and many of the poems recited and sung are accompanied with flutes and the occasional drum, making everything feel very quaint.
In terms of changes from the 2009 production, puppets of the Red King, Red Queen, White Queen and the looking-Glass insects are now added, making the adaptation feel even more endearing. Awww!
But the real driving force of this version comes from the actors. 2 of them play all of the residents of Looking-Glass World between them. Changing between characters with their voices and quick costume changes. An actor will become the sheep or a gnat or the White Knight by putting on a head mask or throwing on a chess crown or ears. In the banquet scene, the actor playing the White Queen also voices the mutton, pudding, and a waiter! All by incorporating lightening fast costume changes into the action to make the audience laugh even more (since Carroll’s source text, unchanged here, is very very witty)
A particular standout is the Gnat, who is not like the Gnat in the 1985 Irwin Allen TV series, or the 1998 Channel 4 adaptation. In those adaptations the Gnat was calm, sitting on a rock or tree. Not so here! Here he buzzes round the stage quite literally, never taking a second to sit down. I can’t help but wonder how the actor managed it. As someone who was used to other adaptations I found this interpretation rather funny. Going from a character who barely walks around to one who can’t stay still for more than a second!
Dum and Dee were enjoyably obnoxious as ever and acted to perfection. This adaptation was particularly sly adapting the Red King scene. In this version you really got the sense that Dum and Dee were absolutely mocking Alice regarding the Red King dream theory.
Essentially- the actors nailed the characters. All of them.
The garden of live flowers perhaps could of done with more company members, as could the train sequence and the end banquet, all of these scenes are well handled, but you miss the company pieces they are meant to be somewhat… the end banquet looses some of its chaos a little because of this, but the actors had an interesting solution, instead of Alice destroying the banquet table by pulling the tablecloth, she is carried by the actors into the air whilst the Red and White Queens seem to drift in some kind of sea. Its a strange moment, but one that fits. Interestingly the armchair that Alice falls asleep in doesn’t exist in this version, so she awakes curled up next to a table on which Kitty perches.
A sitting on a Gate and all of the poems are handled with great care and humour. In particular a sitting on a gate gets very funny, with the White Knight reciting the last verse a cappella as the musicians have gotten bored of the poem going on… and on… and on… As someone who is more used to Ian Holm’s nostalgic and somber take on the poem in the 1998 film, it was interesting to see a comedic interpretation.
The main plaudits of this version and this particular cast really have to go to Hannah Allen, who played Alice. A newcomer to this particular role, Allen presented us with a book accurate eccentric Alice, but with a hint of feisty-ness thrown in for good measure. In the 2009 cast, Miranda Rozkowaski’s Alice had an air of cautiousness and confusion. It seems unfair to compare the two interpretations as they both offer excellent takes on the same character.
Although confused by the world she had found herself in, Allen’s Alice seemed far more concerned with exploring every wonder she came across. Alice here was also more eccentric. After the Red and White Queens disappear after falling asleep, Alice twirls around singing “hushaby lady…” to herself, spinning around in pure joy. If anything captures that character’s essence, its that small scene. Lovely.
There is so much more. I can’t fit it all in.
If its revived (even with a different cast) and you're in the UK, please see it!
