This was my first visit to Liverpool's Playhouse in what must be at least 20 years! It's a cosy and intimate theatre, and yet, despite it's status, is also in need of a coat of paint.
However, I had come along to see a modern, updated, version of the classic Alice In Wonderland story. Lewis Carroll this was not! However, it was not contemporary either. With a book by Stockroom, this is a family show, aimed at the tweenie-boppers.. that uncertain age between prepubescent and teenager, and had we been living in the 1980s, they would undoubtedly have been enthralled and delighted by it all.
Alice is a young teenager (played by Paislie Reid) and listens to her dad's voice and music on a cassette which has jammed inside her radio / cassette player (aka the stereo). We learn that her dad has died, and listening to this brings her solace, whilst her annoying younger brother, Lewis (Zweyla Mitchell Dos Santos), and her mum don't really seem to understand. The March Hare however - who despite being dressed as a hare, is not a hare at all and has nothing to do with the animal kingdom! - is now actually the Eject button on her stereo player - does understand and has been sent by the Queen Of Charts {a musical joke that no-one in the audience got} to bring her into the stereo to find her father. She drinks a potion from Eject (Myles Miller), and enters inside the stereo. We are now in "Wonderland".
What follows is a truly odd mix of Carroll-esque characters, some even dressed as their Carroll counterparts (with the addition of the "emoji" of their button on the costume), and completely new and reinvented characters who inhabit the inside of the machine. These are The Queen Of Charts (Leanne Jones), and her equally evil sister The Queen Of Clubs (Natasha Lewis), and the Cheshire Cat, now given the name Bez (Tomi Ogbaru). We are introduced too to the other buttons... a very shouty pair, Fast-Forward and Rewind (Daniel Carter-Hope and Steve Simmonds); Volume (Jerome Lincoln), Stop (Tomi Ogbaro), and Record (Steve Simmonds) etc. Most of the cast play more than one role throughout, and also provide the show with the music too as they all play musical instruments and sing / dance along to the 1980's styled music composed for the show by Vikki Stone. Why there were playing cards inside a stereo I shall never know.. again, another pointless nod to the Carroll original,
Where this show scores is on the pantomime elements of the show. Fortunately the custom is so entrenched in our society that we don't even ned to be told to react and give the correct responses, even if this is not billed as a panto, it has many of the genre's elements within and the children this evening responded merrily and happily to those. They clapped and bopped along with the more funky rhythms of the music too, but it was patently clear that they - and also some of the parents - were completely lost with the setting and the era. The 1980s is too far away for kids of today, and technology has moved on too quickly for this to have nay relevance or interest for them.
The volume levels were too high this evening sadly, and this was not just for the music, which was played at pop concert volume! Otherwise however, it was obvious that much thought, time and expense had gone into creating the world of this show [costuming, set design, and overall feel], but despite the contemporary casting and the feel-good ending with a message, and the ensemble cast's full-on energy and commitment to the show, it arrived in Liverpool 40 years too late!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 7.7.23
on - 7.7.23
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