Following my disappointment at Anna Nicole, I was slightly
nervous about the next big new thing to arrive on the opera house stage.
However, after one fantastic insight evening with choreographer Chris Wheeldon,
designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot, the nerves were replaced by
excited anticipation. And I was not disappointed.
This is a ballet stacked full of treats, in all respects;
dancing, staging and music. Joby Talbot’s intricate and textured score is
spine-tingling magic, modern yet accessible, with some memorable melodies –
entirely successful in helping you dive with Lewis Carroll into Alice’s
Wonderland. The choreography if not ground-breaking in innovation is effective
in conveying character, humour and vivacity, and works beautifully with
Talbot’s music. The designs are simply FABULOUS and never more so than in Act
II when the playing cards appear – tutus in the shape of all the suits,
topple-able houses of cards, a heart shaped maze – wonderful stuff. And yet,
remarkably, the choreography and the characters do not get lost among all the
brightness and business of the staging. Combining classical steps with elements
of more contemporary dance works well within the constraints of the story and
is rightly unobstructive to the narrative of the ballet. Which is a good thing
as the narrative is already the only slightly weak element of this production.
‘Alice’ is by nature episodic, and lacking in plot to steer
the audience through the evening. Wheeldon, with the help of Nicholas Wright,
has rather cleverly tweaked the scenario such that Alice is older than in the
book and is beginning to have romantic interests, namely in Jack the gardener’s
boy/knave of hearts. The trip to wonderland is also preceded by a prologue,
introducing all the characters that Alice encounters on her trip as characters
at a Victorian dinner party. Jack is fired by Alice’s mother, accused of (you
guessed it) stealing a jam tart, and Alice’s trip with Lewis Carroll (the White
Rabbit) into Wonderland is driven by her desire to see him again. However,
while this helps to a certain extent, it is underdeveloped as a plot, and
doesn’t succeed as an antidote to the episodic. That said I still very very
much enjoyed the whole thing. It doesn’t matter that Alice’s adventures are
almost unrelated – there are enough delights and surprises along the way, and
just about sufficient plot to keep things rolling. I think the right balance
was struck in keeping this as a child’s adventure rather than playing too much
to the potential for more sinister interpretations a la Tim Burton.
So what of these delights and surprises? Clever visual
effects to help Alice grow and shrink, a caterpillar of ballet dancers, a tap
dancing mad hatter, a trampoline victoria sponge cake, a laugh-out loud jam
tart adagio pastiche of the Sleeping Beauty Rose Adagio, adorable spiky ballet
school hedgehogs…I could go on. Act One is long at 70 minutes, so needs pruning
– perhaps the Caucus race could be shortened – at the first viewing I didn’t
really know what was going on here. Other than that though, they’ll be
hard-pushed to cut something! Act Two, is hilarious and fast-paced from start
to finish, with a lovely twist at the end.
As far as individual performances go, they were almost
universally strong. Lauren Cuthbertson was clearly in her element as Alice, and
coped admirably with the almost constant stage presence, never once appearing
tired. Sergei Polunin was a sweetly romantic Knave, although this was a small
part for him. In the second cast, Sarah Lamb was not as at home as Cuthbertson
with the steps, but was better at keeping the narrative moving. Steven McRae’s
tap dancing Mad Hatter was a real treat, even if he was hidden beneath such a
garish costume that I would never have guessed it was him were it not for the
cast list! A particular star for me though was Zenaida Yanowsky as the Queen of
Hearts. Not a dancer I have ever particularly warmed to, she pulled out all the
stops; absolutely hilarious, throwing herself into the part, and yet somehow
amongst all the tomfoolery retaining some gracefulness. The only miscast was
the decision to cast Simon Russell Beale as the Duchess – I wonder whether this
might have been more for the media than anything else – he was OK but the role
could have been done better by one of the regular character artists.
All in all though, an absolute treat. So much to delight in
here, and the collaboration of Christopher Wheeldon, Joby Talbot and Bob
Crowley has me marvelling at their collective creative genius. If only Alice
had got the headlines that it deserved, like those thrown at Anna Nicole…I
guess it comes down to that it’s simply the enchanting story of young girl, a
rabbit and some jam tarts, rather than a large-breasted playboy model, and which
will sell more papers? A great success in my eyes – I can’t wait to see it
again next year.
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