I am a fan of Alice in Wonderland and was looking forward to this production at the NT. I had assumed it was bringing the story in some way to the digital age but, other than that rather hazy expectations.
The exhibition outside the theatre itself was promising as was the stock in the shop. The exhibition made use of an array of digital technology to create virtual reality glasses and so on; the shop had huge and small hand-waving cats for sale as well as copies of Yayoi Kusama's beautiful illustrated version of the book.
The theatre production was, as one has grown to expect at the NT, fantastic. Accompanied by live music and with amazing digital projections, all looked good for a memorable evening. The problem, however, was the play itself. It centred upon a girl who was being bullied at school and was being brought up by a single parent - with a baby brother, mother and absent father who were all pure caricature. She got hold of an avatar that transported her from her 'real' world to one more to her liking and with some of the traditional Alice characters - The cheshire cat, Tweedle dum and tweedle dee, the March hare and so on. The biggest character, however, was the headteacher from her school inreality - a sort of cruella devill who morphed into the Red Queen.
The problem was that the fantasy story never developed at all - characters simply seemed to come and go. On the other hand, her 'real world' story did make progress - but of the most limited and obvious type - the hopeless dad saw his errors, reformed and reconciled with the mother.
So I felt we were left with a rather largely wasted opportunity - all that technology and production clothing a very insubstantial piece of work. you could tell that I was not alone - There was applause; but given the age of the audience (young), it was hardly rapturous.
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