The Mad Hatters Tea Party is a thought-provoking, absurd delight
James Hyland’s adaptation of the classic story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is an insanely creative bewitched piece of theatre. Taking inspiration from the Theatre of Absurd the one-hour, two-hander with James Hyland playing the Mad Hatter and Joshua Jewkes as the March Hare explored the main question of what’s real and what isn’t.
The performances from both James Hyland and Joshua Jewkes were absolutely outstanding. The physicality mixed with the comical timing and depth they both brought to the characters were incredible to watch. The use of space with the table and the movement combined with the command the actors achieved of the audience’s attention was crazily superb. Particularly, James Hyland’s use of the mouse puppet on his left hand. Through the physicality, he brought to the Mouse and the voice changes (being deceived by Hyland covering his mouth when the Mouse was taking) Hyland created life in this fabulously constructed puppet.
In addition, the costuming created by A Child of Jago was an absolute masterpiece and every thought and idea that went into it was a stroke of brilliance. The make-up of the mad hatter of the red lines and eye contact added to the weirdness of the script beautifully. To go further, the use of props of the hat to show different realities and of the tea was perfect. The immersive element of this play was at times too much, but the idea of the dancer Jessica Ivy coming from the audience aided the absurdity of the evening as we were left wondering what was going on until we realised.
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party makes for a great night in the theatre and will leave you slightly gaga and make you ask more questions about life and reality than you had before. However, the pacing of the show in the first 30 minutes felt drawn out and the repetition of the jokes became a down inflation (I understand this is a common practice in the Theatre of Absurd) as it happened so frequently.
But, despite this, The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party is a wonderful and cuckoo piece of the theatre with very creative and imaginative elements mingled in.