Though this beautiful, rather haunting production from Nine Lives Theatre tells a tale that our hero Alice knows by heart, its foreboding setting takes the story into much darker territory than you might have anticipated.
This 2012 musical, written by the same team responsible for Spring Awakening, takes inspiration from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland tale. However, the story is moved forward almost a century into more turbulent times, as we meet the teenage Alice, along with her friend Alfred, as they take shelter in a London tube station during the Blitz.
Alfred is quarantined due to his suffering with tuberculosis, so Alice urges him to escape down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. As she recites her cherished book by heart, Alice brings to life her childhood dream, as the bomb shelter residents morph into the classic Carroll characters. However, the atmosphere in Wonderland is ostensibly darker on her return, and forces Alice to confront her feelings of loss and grief.
There were rich, accomplished performances aplenty from this very talented company, however, unsurprisingly it was the two leads in Eva Mason and Billy Garner as best friends Alice and Alfred who wowed us the most. They were both able to demonstrate their beautiful voices in various songs throughout, but it was their gentle harmonies in Afternoon and Another Room in Your Head where they particularly shone, elevating the production to its emotional best.
Among the supporting roles, Michele Larkin added a touch of class to proceeedings with an impressive lung-busting display of powerhouse vocals in Isn't It a Trial, in which she stood toe-to-toe vocally with Claudio Keita's superb caterpillar.
Elsewhere, Annie Larkin and Eva Crofts' vocals also stood out, with both giving multi-faceted performances. While Annie's assured display as the Cheshire Cat provided a steady, calming presence among the onstage madness, Eva (who played the Mock Turtle and other characters) led from the front in terms of choreography. I should also reserve praise for Joseph Tierney, whose cameo as the Duchess was hilarious.
Having not previously been a visitor to the venue at the Secret Garden, I had no idea what to expect of the staging. Upon walking in, I could immediately see it was a challenging space to utilise, but the production team at Nine Lives maximised it fully. The full width of the stage was used, ensuring the piece was never static, and there was visual engagement to be had in whatever direction you looked. There was a lot of attention to detail, with the interior of the venue decorated with bits and pieces to hint at the bomb shelter the show is initially set in.
With the stage itself not being particularly elevated, there were a few occasions where sight lines were an issue. Additionally, with the playing space being so wide, it was sometimes difficult to immediately gauge which character was speaking, especially when our view was hazed somewhat by dry ice/smoke effects.
Speaking of effects, the lighting was excellent, sometimes being used to indicate search lights as air raid sirens sounded, at other times to create shadows to indicate Alice getting larger or smaller. It was great also that they were able to incorporate a seven piece on-stage band, who sounded fantastic and gave a real lift to the production.
If you weren't overly familiar with the Wonderland tales beforehand, I can see how this slightly muddled story would have been tough to follow at times, but as a showcase for this wonderful companies' abilities, Alice by Heart was a great choice of show. Coming up next for Nine Lives Theatre Company is their panto, Santa's Toymaker in December, which judging by the talent running through their team, should be another hit.
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