Follow Alice down the rabbit hole in Christopher Wheeldon’s thrillingly entertaining ballet.
Christopher
Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland arrived on the stage in
2011 with a burst of colour, theatrical magic and inventive
choreography. It was The Royal Ballet’s first new full-length work since
1995 and was greeted with delight by audiences. Joby Talbot’s score
combines contemporary soundworlds with sweeping melodies that gesture to
ballet scores of the 19th century. Bob Crowley’s wildly imaginative
sets and costumes draw on puppetry, projections and masks to make
Wonderland wonderfully real.
Alice encounters a cast of
extraordinary characters, from the highly-strung Queen of Hearts, who
performs a hilarious send-up of The Sleeping Beauty's famous Rose Adage,
to dancing playing cards, a sinuous caterpillar and a tap-dancing Mad
Hatter. Alice and the Knave of Hearts dance a tender, loving pas de deux
of delicate beauty. But the ballet does not avoid the darker
undercurrents of Lewis Carroll’s story – a nightmarish kitchen, an
eerily disembodied Cheshire Cat and the unhinged tea party are all
created in vivid detail.
Christopher
Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland arrived on the stage in
2011 with a burst of colour, theatrical magic and inventive
choreography. It was The Royal Ballet’s first new full-length work since
1995 and was greeted with delight by audiences. Joby Talbot’s score
combines contemporary soundworlds with sweeping melodies that gesture to
ballet scores of the 19th century. Bob Crowley’s wildly imaginative
sets and costumes draw on puppetry, projections and masks to make
Wonderland wonderfully real.
Alice encounters a cast of
extraordinary characters, from the highly-strung Queen of Hearts, who
performs a hilarious send-up of The Sleeping Beauty's famous Rose Adage,
to dancing playing cards, a sinuous caterpillar and a tap-dancing Mad
Hatter. Alice and the Knave of Hearts dance a tender, loving pas de deux
of delicate beauty. But the ballet does not avoid the darker
undercurrents of Lewis Carroll’s story – a nightmarish kitchen, an
eerily disembodied Cheshire Cat and the unhinged tea party are all
created in vivid detail.
