The West Australian Ballet’s acclaimed production Alice (in wonderland) is being restaged at the Crown Theatre and it’s the perfect school holiday outing.
This creative take on Lewis Carol’s classic tale was first staged in 2022 and is a co-production with the Hong Kong Ballet. Created by choreographer Septime Webre it stays pretty close to the original story and is filled with fun performances, incredibly creative sets and consuming and some young performers who completely steal the show.
It’s the perfect ballet to take a young person along to, and it’s mostly a fast moving tale with a succession of quirky characters and challenges for young Alice.
Ahead of the curtain rising I realised that it had been decades since I really though of the journey of Alice as she follows the White Rabbit into a magical world. I wondered if I’d ever read the book, or if I was just recalling the Disney cartoon. I feel its one of those books that was read to me as a child, like Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree or Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
Soon I once again joining Alice on her journey as she chased the White Rabbit into his realm, where she meets an assortment of characters. The scene where Alice grows bigger and then smaller was brilliantly staged, a magical moment. It was also our first exposure to some of the young performers joining the company for this fun ride.
We journey on to the flood of tears, meeting the Dormouse, Eaglet, Dodo Bird and Flamingoes, and the younger members of the case capture our hearts as young chicks. Then onto the cooking of a soup which the Cook has mut too much pepper, and those young performers return as some very cute little piggies.
The Cheshire Cat was playful fun, the the caterpillar beautiful realised through both movement and costuming, and then the Mad Hatter is holding his legendary tea party.
The second half opens with the Queen’s Garden Party, gardeners who’ve accidently planted white roses and are desperately plaiting them red, croquet with flamingoes and the youngsters are back as somersaulting hedgehogs.
After the Queen chases our cast of characters into the forest, we meet Tweedledum and Tweedledee – who I had completely forgotten about in my childhood recollections. They soon all band together to battle the Jabberwocky, who I’m fairly sure is from a different Lewis Carrol story, but it serves as a great end-of-level boss.
Alternating casts are delivering the show, but on opening night Alice was marvelously played by Chihiro Nomura, while Glenda Garcia Gomez was the menacing Queen of Hearts. Julio Barnes entertained as The White Rabbit and Juan Carlos Osma captivated as The Mad Hatter. Jurgen Rahimi appeared and disappeared as The Cheshire Cat.
There were also great performances from Asja Petrovski as the Caterpillar, Oscar Valdés as the distracted King of Hearts, Charles Dashwood as Dodo, and Alexa Tuzil as Eaglet. The performances from the large cast of young guest artists was delightful, and truly injected youthful zest into the production.
The costumes from Liz Vandal indicate her previous work with Cirque du Soleil, and she filled the stage with bright colours, clever designs and bold shapes. Sure anyone can make a card costume, but one you can dance in takes extra skill.
The score created by Matthew Pierce is challenging. He combines elements of Asian, Middle Easter, Jazz and Pop sounds. It has a comic element that at first works well, but soon becomes tiring. It’s lacking the romanticism that the story generates.
Returning to the story of Alice (in wonderland) was a joyful experience though, and a fun school holiday outing for lovers of ballet and a great entry point if you’ve never embraced the world of ballet before.
Alice (in wonderland) is at the Crown Theatre until 12th July.
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