Wonderfully clever and endlessly entertaining.
Ready for a trip to wonderland from the comfort of your local train station? Erstwhile Media brings this magical and modern retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic to the Free Fringe Stage to great success. Alice is a relatable young person navigating the world of dating, a complicated mother/daughter relationship and the mounting pressure to have life all figured out. When she falls asleep on the job…again, the audience are invited into a fantastical trip as her subconscious attempts to do just that—figure it out—with the help of some familiar characters.
In a stroke of magical realist brilliance, the Cheshire cat is an overeager Tinder date, the Caterpillar is a stoner and local drugs dealer, the Hatter is a bygone teacher, and the Queen of Hearts is none other than Alice’s own dear, croquette obsessed mother. With excellent use of physical comedy these distinct characters are beautifully brought to life each with fantastical dialogue, witty modernizations and superb acting.
Incredibly accessible, this narrative encompasses all the familiar trappings of its inspiration while speaking directly to the lived experience of many twenty-somethings in the audience. The distinct scenes between Alice and the other cast were excellently paced with incredible cleverness. The energy in the transitional scenes did lag and unfortunately kill some of the narrative’s momentum leaving the piece to have an overall jarring quality about it. This was exacerbated by the presence of a few underdeveloped scenes, but was not a glaring distraction from the quality of the work as a whole. This piece is likely one rewrite away from perfection, and, as such, deserving of all the praise it has received from its audience.