The Australian Ballet’s production of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a cascade of color and creativity entertaining from start to finish. Alice is sheer joy of movement, story and slapstick comedy woven into a sophisticated multi-media production. The ballet makes use of puppetry, pantomime, projections, elaborate sets and automated props. Lewis Carroll’s classic writing on a young girl’s coming of age has inspired countless interpretations both on stage and in film. The story’s iconic characters and outlandish scenes are good fodder for the imagination, and choreographer/director Wheeldon makes the most of every opportunity to deliver on this sumptuous adventure.
Tony Award-winning designer Bob Crowley must be applauded for his phenomenal work, which includes Victorian themed costumes and sets that seamlessly move from one scene to the next. The transitions and visual effects in particular are clever and innovative. Composer Joby Talbot, who recently scored the musical fantasy film Wonka, provides a score equally grand and cinematic. The sheer creativity produced by Wheeldon, Crowley and Talbot are extraordinary and worth every cent of admission. Dancers lead the narrative in a blaze of color with Wheeldon’s quirky choreography, which is modern and uniquely designed for each character’s temperament. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland delivers on every theatrical element with hilarity and amazement. The brightness of the production will have you putting on your rose-colored glasses to view childhood in the most creative of ways.
Principal Artist Benedicte Bemet effortlessly dances the role of Alice in this marathon of a ballet. She is in almost every scene and remains fresh and vulnerable throughout her character’s journey. She is led down the rabbit hole by Principal Artist Chengwu Guo as the White Rabbit. Wearing his spiffy waist coat, Guo is as light as a fluffy cloud with exuberance and a whiff of mischief.
The most stand-out performance is the scene-stealing Queen of Hearts danced by Principal Artist Robyn Hendricks. She is delightfully evil, frantically fickle and demanding. Her choreography is by far Wheeldon’s most inspired with a Tart Adagio that will remind balletomane’s of Sleeping Beauty,and a tantalizing tango showcasing Hendricks’s not often seen humorous talents. Her candy-apple red tutu screams for attention as she is wheeled around in a heart-shaped chariot/throne. She is the iconic character you love to hate, and Hendricks delivers in spades – or should I say hearts.
The narrative follows Alice as she lands upon a series of unrelated scenes with ostentatious characters of varying degrees. The first is a drollery of sorts: a grotesque home sausage factory complete with meat grinder and cleaver-wielding cook, portrayed with committed deadpan humor by Larissa Kiyoto-Ward (Coryphée). Guest Artist Ben Davis masters the camp aesthetic as the flamboyant Duchess who carelessly handles a shape-shifting baby. The scene is rounded out with satisfying dancing by the Fish and Frog duet. Drew Hedditch and Yichuan Wang dance the bug-eyed duo with some of the cleanest and most bravura choreography in the production. Other memorable scenes include the Mad Hatter’s tea party with a tap dancing George-Murray Nightingale (Coryphée) leading the soiree, supported by a comical March Hare, Timothy Coleman (Coryphée), and sleepy Dormouse, Yuumi Yamada (Senior Artist). The tea party scene has a vaudeville style and makes good use of Nightingale’s impressive skills as a hoofer. An atmosphere of mystery and illusion is visited in the Caterpillar scene. Nathan Brook (Senior Artist) mesmerizes as the Caterpillar, demonstrating brilliant fluidity and impressive flexibility in his undulating choreography. The Caterpillar scene successfully marches along with a bevy of glittering caterpillar legs made all the more mystical by lighting designer Natasha Katz’s cool blue and purple tones.
Although the solo pieces are memorable in Alice, the most beautiful dancing moments are in group scenes. Wheeldon offers a Victorian rose garden of dancers that Busby Berkeley would be proud of with synchronized patterns reminiscent of flower petals. The company dancers waltz to Talbot’s score with overflowing grace and beauty. The audience’s collective brain embraces this restful set of dancing before being hurled into the chaos of the house of cards scene. Like a well-oiled machine the dancers tick and tock their arms and legs with clock-work precision building in intensity. The climax is a swirl of characters and projections with a dramatic score driving the dancers into ever changing tessellated shapes. There is a sense of relief when the scene concludes with Alice returning up through the rabbit hole to reality. Bemet dances with her partner Joseph Caley (Principal Artist) as the Knave of Hearts and her suitor. Their final pas de deux is the most emotionally connected dancing in the entire production. Caley partners Bemet with ease and a believable playfulness that reminds us of the beauty of childhood innocence.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a theatrical spectacle that brings together the very best of the arts: magnificent dancing to glorious music with larger-than-life set design and costumes. The creativity in this production is genius and bound to satiate your inner child.
Performances run through until March 26 in the State Theatre.
Photo credit: Christopher Rodgers-Wilson
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Paris Wages reviewed “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, performed by The Australian Ballet at Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre on March 15, 2024.
