Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (TV)

Alice-Lauren Cuthbertson
Jack/Knave of Hearts-Sergei Polunin
Lewis Carroll/White Rabbit-Edward Watson
Alice's Mother/Queen of Hearts-Zenaida Yanowksy
Rajah/Caterpillar-Eric Underwood
Magician/Mad Hatter-Steven McRae
Alice's Father/King of Hearts-Christopher Saunders
The Duchess-Simon Russell Beale
Vicar/March Hare-Ricardo Cervera
Verger/Dormouse-James Wilkie
Cook-Kristin McNally
Footman/Fish-Ludovic Ondiviela
Footman/Frog-Kenta Kura
Alice's Sisters-Leanne Cope & Samantha Raine
Butler/Executioner-Philip Mosley

So, confession time, I know very little about the technical parts of ballet. Thus, this probably couldn't really be called a review because I'm generally astonished by anyone who can dance well and the only time I'd notice if something goes wrong is if they fall over or wobble a bit. However, I like to use this as a place to record my thoughts on anything, and my guess is that this Royal Ballet production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland won't be fading away soon.

Choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon who, after watching the ENB Agony & Ecstasy programme struck me as really young, Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland opens at a tea party in Oxford. There, the guests and characters that Alice meets are all representative of the characters she will later encounter in Wonderland. After her mother separates her from her love interest Jack, party guest Lewis Carroll attempts to cheer her up, but Alice soon drifts off to sleep. When she awakes, Carroll has transformed into the White Rabbit and her journey to Wonderland commences. Whilst there, Alice meets all the familiar characters such as the Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, crazy Duchess, Mad Hatter and of course the Queen of Hearts.

With designs by Bob Crowley, who has worked on such plays as The History Boys and the musicals Aida and Mary Poppins, the piece just looks stunning. As the Queen of Hearts, Yanowsky gets an amazing entrance contraption, and all the sets in Wonderland look incredible; in particular the Court of the Queen and the rather grotesque house of the Duchess. Probably my favourite piece was the Cheshire Cat, which was a huge puppet, with different parts of it controlled by various dancers, and it was drawn like the original illustrations in the Carroll novel. My only issue with the design was that occasionally scenes like the falling down and falling up the rabbit hole seemed to last a little too long; and was basically just a massive projection which was cool for a bit, but seemed to drag.

The score, written by Joby Talbot, is also new and also pretty fun. It manages to still sound like a classic ballet score but still adds some unique touches to it, for instance with the dance for the Caterpillar the music is eastern and almost hip-hop inspired and there is a recurring motif of the 'tick tock' of a clock throughout the ballet.

Onto the dancing, and this was really a case where the entire ensemble cast were wonderful. Cuthbertson, for whom the role of Alice was created, is a wonderfully compelling stage presence. She manages to portray Alice's curiosity and unhappiness with Wonderland brilliantly, and I think I'd really love to see her do, say, Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (a role she has already played) or Clara in The Nutcracker (although she has already danced the Sugar Plum Fairy) because she seems to really be able to bring forward a sense youthfulness on stage (not that she is anyway old-she's in her early twenties). Yanowsky is scene stealing as the Queen of Hearts; one of the most fun bits of the show is when she attempts to dance with four of her card courtiers; all of whom are at least a head shorter than she-hilarity ensues. Other fun performances come from McRae, Cervera and Wilkie as the mad tea party trio. I will admit that Polunin is stuck with a rather empty role-basically, a love interest to Alice and a reason to incorporate pas de deux into the choreography (this seems to be the case for many male lead roles is ballet).

That being said I really enjoyed watching this, I love the BBC for putting up so many productions that I could never in a million years afford to see. A further thing I loved was Wheeldon's choreography when it reflected the movements of animals so well, from the White Rabbit to the Frog and Fish Footmen, to the Caucus Race populated by numerous animals; the choreography really reflected the actual movements of the animals.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was really good fun to watch, and judging by the mostly favourable reviews it received, should be a round for quite a while as a great alternative to shows like The Nutcracker during the festive season.