Alice in Wonderland: Carroll enters the class wars in a desperately misconceived production

Tia Larsen in Alice in Wonderland, at Shakespeare North Playhouse
Tia Larsen in Alice in Wonderland, at Shakespeare North Playhouse - Kristian Lawrence

​Lewis Carroll’s much-loved children’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland seems almost purpose built for the stage. With its sympathetic child heroine, its parade of gloriously outlandish characters, and, of course, its many opportunities for wonderful costumes and sets, it is a gift to theatre-makers.

Sad to say, however, Shakespeare North Playhouse’s new version – directed by Nathan Powell – is excruciatingly misconceived, and squanders that gift unforgivably. Whether by accident or design, adapter Nick Lane’s new script mounts a series of dreadful assaults on the magic of Carroll’s opus.

Succumbing, perhaps, to the modish obsession with contemporary “relevance”, Lane has created a sequel to the book in which Alice is now a middle-aged, working-class woman living with her two children in Prescot. After falling through the floor of a shop while buying Christmas presents in the Merseyside town, Alice finds herself not only back in Wonderland, but, preposterously, dressed in the iconic sky-blue-and-white pinafore she wore during her childhood adventures in Carroll’s surreal netherworld.

This desperate shoehorning of the enchanted Wonderland into a badly misjudged and drearily quotidian storyline is just the opening salvo in the production’s war against the novel. The ditching of the child protagonist kills off the book’s primary means of generating a sense of identification among young audiences.

Worse still – as four young actors costumed as cards take on narrative duties to Helen Carter’s grown-up Alice – it becomes clear that Powell and Lane have been unable to decide whether their show should be a work of family Christmas theatre, a musical or a pantomime. In the end, they appear to have opted to make it a stuttering and shambolic combination of all three.

Alice in Wonderland, at Shakespeare North Playhouse
Alice in Wonderland, at Shakespeare North Playhouse - Kristian Lawrence

The ludicrously attired Carter wanders around a Wonderland that is now ruled by the Duchess, who has come to power by tricking her sister, the Queen of Hearts. The new ruler is not only a despot who has banned Christmas, she also makes pronouncements – regarding “levelling up” Wonderland, making it “great again” and, even, opening up “new pork markets” – that connect her less-than-subtly to politicians of the right on both sides of the Atlantic.

This awkward stab at political relevance is joined to a series of feeble references to contemporary culture, ranging from BBC children’s channel CBeebies to Eastenders. The play’s songs are forgettable at best, while the strand of pantomime-style audience participation is (often embarrassingly) forced and quite contrary to any effort to sustain a narrative.

The four actor-narrators – including the talented Martha Godber as the Duchess, among other roles – make brave attempts to play the tale’s considerable panoply of characters. Unfortunately, they are required to do so wearing unlovely outfits that would be more suited to a fancy-dress party than a professional theatre stage.

Ultimately, no amount of youthful energy can save a production that is utterly lacking in coherence, conviction and charm.

Until Jan 11. Tickets: 0151 433 7156; shakespearenorthplayhouse.co.uk