Adventures In Wonderland
The Vaults
20th May 2017
3 Stars
Book Tickets
What has happened to this show? Only a month ago, it was firing on all cylinders, generating a wonderful buzz in the atmospherically redesigned venue, attracting droves of enthusiastic patrons, many dressed up to look the part, and all ready to throw themselves into the mysterious and fascinating world generated by an army of designers and technicians in a sprawling complex of spaces beneath Waterloo Railway Station. The cast were animated, intensely driven to tell their extraordinary tale of exploration both physical and psychical. The audience entered into this ready to open their hearts and minds to a revelatory rediscovery of Lewis Carroll’s stories, ‘Alice In Wonderland’ and ‘Alice Through The Looking-Glass’.
Having seen the show twice in rapid succession over the past few days, I’m alarmed to have found that the production, while visually just as appealing and delicious, has lost much of its shine and excitement as drama. On Friday night, I did the ‘grown-up’ version (Read our review) that has been running for a month, and was surprised by the perfunctory and ‘rushed’, superficial feeling it created; as participants we were ushered along from one staging post to the next, without there being any tangible feeling of being ‘involved’ in any narrative. It felt like going shopping: you know, once you’ve done haberdashery, you can make your way down to cutlery, and so on. It was a mechanical process only. Any sense of ‘theatre’ had been abandoned.
Why? Well, before I had a chance to ponder that question properly, I attended a run-through of the shorter ‘5-10 year olds’ version, called, ‘Adventures In Wonderland’, even though many of the characters and situations referred to are indeed from ‘Through The Looking-Glass’, but let’s not quibble about that. The point is, lamentably, that the truly magnificent installation, with its remarkable designs and illusions, is being as ill-served by a cast that has somehow let their grip on the performance slip from between their fingers. This is extremely unusual. And all the more noticeable for that.
One looks around for explanations. The cast cannot be faulted for having to work a very, very long day. There are shows of ‘Underground’ Tuesday to Friday 5:45pm to 10:45pm, Saturday’s performances run between 1:45pm and 10:45pm, and Sunday’s between 1:45pm and 6:30pm. There are no performances on Monday. Meanwhile, another – much smaller – cast does the children’s performances less frequently, with a few shows split between Monday and Tuesday morning, and then between 10:40am and 4:30pm weekdays, and 10:10am till 1pm at weekends. Because the casts constantly rotate, and the actors are often heavily made-up and costumed, it is very difficult to know who will be playing which part, and therefore practically impossible to make anything other than generalised comments on the quality of the performances overall.
Nevertheless, seeing both ‘Underground’ and ‘Wonderland’ within the same 24-hour period confirmed in my mind a common difficulty being experienced by this event. The casts seemed physically exhausted by the work they are doing. Performers appeared noticeably fatigued and over-exerted by their work: and in their interactions with the public, there was an overwhelming sense that rather than connecting with us, they were instead hurrying to keep up with the punishing schedule of getting through anything up to 18 or 13 shows a day. This is a crippling timetable and its effects are already taking its toll on the hard-working but only flesh-and-blood actors.
Now, add to this problem some awkward facts about the script. Without the full attentiveness of an over-tired and harried cast, the text itself starts to come apart. The charms of the actors are no longer able to disguise certain characteristic weaknesses in the writing. Chief amongst these is the tendency to construct each separate ‘scene’ as nothing more than a monologue to be ‘delivered’ to the public, while effectively holding them up on their progress around the installation. Everyone who joined the group I was with, including the younger patrons, seemed to notice this: we were forever being chivvied along, down this corridor, through that door, wait here, don’t move, do as you’re told… With no clear ‘objective’ in mind and no visible obstacle in the way of achieving it (other than the organisation of the route), this soon became wearisome. And the text itself became just ‘chat’, a spiel to be rattled off as quickly as possible by the contorting actors, rushing through their moves, and rushing any comments or questions directed at us.
The playground is still a fabulous spectacle, and this can be enjoyed for its own wonderful sake. But there is much less to this show than there was just a few weeks ago. What kind of shape it will be in after a couple more months is anyone’s guess. The producers might wake up to the fact that they either have to have more actors or work them less like pit ponies. Or get a better re-write of the script. If you’re going to see this show, I’d go soon to avoid disappointment. It’s still a fair bet, but at this rate of fading, I’m not sure how much longer that will be said of it.
