Nonsense stories are never the easiest thing to stage, even when it’s the most famous nonsense story of them all, so it’s brave of Iris Theatre to give it a go and quite a coup to pull it off as well as they have this hot, sultry summer.
Set in and around the lovely St Paul’s Church in the heart of Covent Garden, Iris play Alice in Wonderland firmly for laughs, producing a sort of Pythonesque madhouse that has you gasping one minute and laughing like a loon the next.
With a cast of seven playing well over 20 characters it’s a completely bonkers take on a bonkers book and as you follow the players around the churchyard and eventually into the church itself, your equilibrium will take a right old battering as you meet the the campest Queen of Hearts ever (David Baynes), a narcissistic, rock star Caterpillar (Matt Wilman) with his own singing larvae groupies, and a psychopathic March Hare (Baynes again). Alice (a suitably sweet Laura Wickham), finding herself amongst such creatures, understandably takes a bit of a back seat.
Being essentially a series of vignettes, Lewis Carroll’s book lends itself to the perambulatory nature of Iris’s summer shows, with the audience sitting down for ten or fifteen minutes and then being told to follow a character to the next area. Don’t expect much plot, excepting that Alice has lost her name and is trying to find it. Content yourself with wallowing in the panto and slapstick gags that come thick and fast.
That’s if you’re not hauled up to participate in the madness yourself, as you might well find yourself running a caucus race (still not sure), or being a hoop in a game of croquet. Even the vicar was handed a pink flamingo and told to get on with it. I was part of the brilliantly nutty Mad Hatter’s tea party, played out along the churchyard’s narrow pathway, where I met David Bayne’s rabidly Scottish mad March Hare.
Bayne’s Trainspotting Hare unashamedly munches up the tea party scene and gobs it out, while throwing a few punches for good measure (not at the audience I hasten to add). It’s a performance of unalloyed genius, as is his earlier Duck, and his later Queen of Hearts where he channels Rik from the Young Ones into a red and black ponytailed fright wig, low-cut dress, and DMs. “The only good points are sharp, pokey ones,” she snorts.
Alice, amidst all this madness, is apt to get a little lost, while Simon Kent plays the White Rabbit in such a straight manner that his performance seems like it’s from another version of the show. Nick Howard-Brown as the Mad Hatter plays it down the middle as a gawd blimey guvnor Cockney, and slots in nicely.
A sweet little interlude with two puppets singing about the perils of old age was completely swamped by someone watching Corrie with the volume up to the max (and then some) in a room overlooking the churchyard, and it was sometimes difficult to hear the performers over the frenetic sounds of Covent Garden on a boiling hot Friday evening but then that’s all part of the al fresco experience and to be expected.
Andy Pilbeam-Brown’s design makes the most of the open spaces, using the church itself to contain Alice when she grows and doesn’t stop growing, and there’s a neat size trick with the Cheshire Cat who enters and exits in a puff of smoke. The look is very much classic Tenniel, the book’s original illustrator, and Emma Devonald’s costumes make all the main characters instantly recognizable for the kids who’ll be busy enjoying the broad panto humour, while the adults will be trying to catch the knowing asides (“Once upon a time there were three sisters,” begins the Dormouse. “Oooh, Chekov,” nods the Mad Hatter).
At once both intimate and grand, this Alice ends with a tugging of the heartstrings inside the smoke-filled church, and I guarantee you’ll come out with a tear in your eye as you see Alice find her name, and herself in the process.
This small company, based in St Paul’s, each summer manages to pull a rabbit or two out of the hat with their lively, clever, and engaging productions, and Alice continues this tradition splendidly. Madly anarchic and wildly funny, this show is a family treat that’s too good to miss.
FOUR STARS
WHAT: Alice in Wonderland by Iris Theatre
WHERE: St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, London
WHEN: Until August 31, Mon – Sat 7pm, Thurs – Sat 2.30pm
TICKETS: £15.50/£11.50
MORE INFO: CLICK HERE:
RUNNING TIME: I’ve no idea, but I got the train back OK
WOULD I GO AGAIN: Yep, and again, and again
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