ARTS REVIEW: A rabbit hole brimming with vivid sensory experiences

ALICE (in wonderland), WA Ballet ·
His Majesty’s Theatre, 7 April 2022 ·

When Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane screamed “feed your head” it was in reference to ingesting some kind of mushroom. But if you’re not a fan of fungi, filling your head with West Australian Ballet’s production of Septime Webre’s ALICE (in wonderland) might be the next best thing.

An adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s psychedelic tale, Webre’s ALICE is a trippy hyperactive ride, brimming with vivid sensory experiences and superbly danced set pieces. First presented by WAB in 2019, the production has lost none of its kaleidoscopic appeal.

The ballet opens with the yawning expanse of a blue-hued stage, a blank page yet to be filled, a looming monochromatic vacuum ready to suck into its void the production’s surreal cast of colourful characters.

As her family buzz busily around her, dominated by the intense power dynamics between her Mother (Glenda Garcia Gomez) and Father (Matthew Lehmann), Alice (Carina Roberts) is drawn in by family friend, Lewis Carroll, who reads her Alice in Wonderland whilst they are on a boat ride. This prologue represents Carroll’s real life, his friendship with the Liddell family, and his regular excursions with ten-year-old Alice Liddell.

Alice eventually drifts off to sleep, and daydreams herself down a rabbit hole, emerging in Carroll’s Wonderland. The White Rabbit that she follows, clad in a tux adorned with timepieces, is danced throughout with charm, wit, and signature bounce and tail wiggle by Oliver Edwardson in the cast viewed.

After following the rabbit to a random hallway, Alice samples the food and beverages on offer and begins the well-known growing, shrinking, and tight squeezes sequence. Cleverly crafted puppetry, aerobatics, and other transfixing illusions render Carroll’s psychedelic literary visions into material manifestations.

Roberts’ nimble, bright, and airy performance throughout the ballet, even while being tossed, stretched, and suspended, effectively captures the essence of Carroll’s Alice.

It really cannot be overstated how the set design (James Kronzer), lighting design (Clifton Taylor), puppetry (Eric Van Wyk), costume design (Liz Vandal), and music score (Matthew Pierce) are everything in this work, combining the irony, satire and colourful vibrancy of 60s pop-art couched within the era’s essentialist minimalism.

There are jazzy big band moments, such as the Mancini-like score to Matthew Lehmann’s lithe and seedy Cheshire Cat scene, with an eclectic shift to a rendition of classic electronic dance music banger, ”Take Me to The Love Parade”, at the cool, entrancing, and unpredictable Mad Hatter’s (Ludovico Di Ubaldo) flower power tea party.

After crying a sea of tears and befriending the adorable and animated Dormouse (Mayume Noguromi), Alice encounters the famous Caucus Race. The setting is again entrancing, featuring a flamboyance of flamingos, followed by an excellent pas de deux by Dodo (Juan Carlos Osma) and Eaglet (Dayana Hardy Acuna). The Caucus Race scene is an example of how ALICE, despite containing all the elements of Alice in Wonderland, occasionally departs somewhat from the original text with respect to focus. The Caucus scene is longer than expected, but watching the classical virtuosity of Osma and Acuna is a spectacular treat well worth Webre’s artistic licence.

Glenda Garcia Gomez embraces and relishes her role as the vicious Queen of Hearts, adorned with pixelated hearts embroidered onto a stunning red and black corseted villainess costume. This costume is just one of Vandal’s many superbly fashioned outfits, many of them created with richly coloured latex. To choose another from many examples, the Caterpillar’s costume and eventual transformation is gorgeous. Dancer Asja Petrovski imbues the Caterpillar with a seductive hedonism, effortlessly snaking, weaving and swimming through a dreamy purple haze.

Alice has too many captivating moments and performances to do justice in a single review, but other standout moments include Izaak Westhead’s Joker, the Fish (Ruben Flynn-Kann) and Frog (Adam Alzaim), the ensemble Doors scene, the panto style antics of the Cook (Matthew Edwardson) and the Duchess (Jack Whiter), the cast of very talented children for the cuteness factor, and the appearance of the fearsome Jabberwocky.

ALICE is such a fun, exciting, and inventive piece of entertainment that you really just have to go and see it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

ALICE (in wonderland) continues until 21 May 2022.

Seesaw Magazine publishes reviews, news and features about the WA arts scene.