wonder.land is a coming-of-age musical, with music from Damon Albarn, book and lyrics from Moira Buffini and direction from Rufus Norris, boldly positioned at the opposite end of the spectrum from the traditional Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland story and exploring the ‘blurred’ boundaries between our online and offline lives…
Albarn’s first encounter with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a very dark experience and as a child, he particularly disliked The Queen of Hearts; a character with such horrific psychosis that there was no way of reasoning to her better nature, she just didn’t have one. It wasn’t until years later that he had the idea of creating a dark, digital version of Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece, and following a discussion with Alex Poots who created Manchester International Festival, prompting him to take out his phone and point to the screen, saying, ‘This is the rabbit hole.’ From there, a musical was born.
Aly (Lois Chimimba) is a young, typically angry teenage girl who has just moved to a new state school in London. She comes from a broken home; her father is a relentless gambling addict and her mother is now a single parent with a baby to raise. Aly is bullied constantly and spends her days looking for ways to escape her life. The costumes and set design by Rae Smith are all very grey and spartan at this point, emphasising the dullness of her world, and we’re introduced to the first song from Damon’s soundtrack, with instrumentals from the live band. Aly sings ‘It’s all about Charlie’, in reference to her baby brother who gets all the attention while she is left to her own devices. Unfortunately the track, which sets the general tone, is overly repetitive, and is reminiscent of works you’d find at the wrong end of the pop charts.
Aly turns to her phone for comfort and in one particularly lonely moment searches online for a way to ‘be someone else’, thereby discovering an incredible multi-coloured wonder.land along with the hilarious Elvis-like Cheshire Cat (Hal Fowler) who talks her into creating a new version of herself: an avatar. It is this moment where we are bamboozled by a series of incredible projections created by 59 Productions with the avatar, Alice, suspended mid-stage with random objects whirling around her and creating a colourful, psychedelic descent down the digital rabbit hole. We see the immense bright grimace of the Cheshire Cat fill the stage; a colossal golden ball with flaming whiskers. And this is where the genius of this production lies: the coming together of digital and theatre in a creative and spectacular way.
Aly’s avatar, Alice (Carly Bawden) is slowly lowered down to the stage, and we see that she couldn’t be less like Aly. Alice is a tall, blonde haired Barbie-like doll, trotting about in a blue dress, with shoes so high they might be technically classified as stilts.
The White Rabbit (Joshua Lacey) appears shortly after. He is mute, mechanical and balletic (With an undercurrent of Donnie Darko) and teases Aly down the rabbit hole further, to harsh, metallic, video-game-like beats. She follows not knowing where she will end up. Along the way she meets some very peculiar friends, who turn out to be other lonely teens with other topical problems. Their costumes (Katrina Lindsay) are varied – from the large soft floppiness of the giant Dormouse to the bright and spangled bauble costumes of the hookah Caterpillar.
Aly becomes consumed by the game and increasingly attached to the character that she’d rather be. We see her become more involved in the game every time something unbearable happens in her life. One day her phone is confiscated by the terrifyingly hilarious Headteacher, Ms. Manxome (Anna Francolini) a character who acts like the lovechild of The Queen of Hearts and Sue White from Green Wing. Recognising herself in Alice, she becomes instantly attached and begins manipulating Aly’s character, stealing her phone, her profile, and wreaking havoc in wonder.land.
This is a truly bizarre musical for older kids and young adults who don’t mind a little darkness in their entertainment. If not, they might end up like the little girl in the bathroom at the end of the performance, looking white with shell shock, clutching on to her Disney-fied white rabbit toy.
wonder.land at the National Theatre until April 2016. Running time approximately 2 hours 15 minutes including an interval. For more information and to book tickets visit the website.
