(seen at the afternoon performance on 28th June 2025)
And a wonderland adventure it truly is. For those who think ballet cannot be funny, magical and surreal, able to hold an entire audience (including a 5-year-old boy two seats along from the monkey) spellbound for almost three hours, here is proof that it can.
From a company who produce almost annually sweetly earnest “The Nutcracker,” imposingly regal “Swan Lake” and who blew the monkey away with the boldly erotic “Manon,” it is a surprise to find they do ‘entirely bonkers’ equally well.
Lewis Carroll is of course a master of the surreal, but Wheeldon’s choreography stirred by Saunders / Toohey / Vanstone’s staging using Bob Crowley’s designs find untapped depths of humour in the most unlikely places within Alice’s dream.
Isabella Gasparini, not always in charge of her hairband, is the bold young lady who finds family party guest Lewis Carroll (Leo Dixon) has leporine genes and holds the key to a magical world.
When friend Jack (Calvin Richardson, in for injured Marco Masciari) is unfairly dismissed for jam tart rustling (one later escaped accidentally, too), they all end up in a fairytale world where nothing is as it seems.
Ruled by the Queen of Hearts (Itziar Mendizabal, her final majestic performance before becoming a Royal Ballet School teacher) in an inspired transportation unit, nobody would want to be a Gardener (particularly not Emile Gooding, Caspar Lench and Alejandro Munoz) nor a croquet flamingo or hedgehog.
In her quest to assist Jack, now Knave of Hearts and public enemy number one, Alice encounters a Mad Hatter (Amelia Townsend, with a rather good line in hat zoos), side kick The March Hare (Aiden O’Brien), and a wonderfully dozy and expressive dormouse (Madison Bailey).
Jumble in a footman / frog (Daichi Ikarashi), fabulously louche Caterpillar (Lukas B. Braendsrod and entourage) and perfectly staged Cheshire Cat (Toby Olie’s imagination) and we are not even close to mentioning folk like the exasperated King (Gary Avis) or Alice’s supportive sisters (Ginevra Zambon and Bomin Kim).
All flit in and out of Alice’s life, confusing or elucidating – mostly the former. Jon Driscoll and Gemma Garrington add projections aiding scale transformations greatly as required; and of the major set items, the butchering kitchen is surprisingly savage... and worse if you are porcine.
In a rare occurrence, Paul Lieve generates laughs of delight with his magic (the roses are a hoot), while Steven McRae’s input into the Mad Hatter’s tap dance for the jury deserves note.
Oh, and the monkey is also grateful as always to its knowledgeable ballet friend for highlighting the “Sleeping Beauty” parody in act three... comparing the two, the other fantasy is the far safer option for sure...
This is a big, busy production in which the pace never flags, the inspired modern ending leaves us wanting far more as the curtain falls on a perfect scratch.
A classic summertime tale performed by a very special national institution. As fitting as Wimbledon strawberries and cream – and just as delightful.
5 stars.