“It’s a big, bold, bonkers all-singing, all-dancing adventure of a show.”
That’s how director Mark Calvert describes his production of Alice in Wonderland, Northern Stage’s Christmas show.
Alice is a whizz at card tricks, hates sitting still and always asks too many questions. One day her curiosity leads her tumbling through a theatre trapdoor into Wonderland…
“It’s really exciting to create a magical fantasy world for Alice and the characters she meets along the way,” says Calvert. “Setting the action in a theatre allows us to be constantly inventive. Our Alice—who’s a bit like the Artful Dodger in Oliver—meets a magician called the Great Blanco who sort of conjures up Wonderland for her after she falls through a trap door. Audiences will recognise the characters they know and love from the original story, but with a theatrical twist.”
Theresa Heskins adapted the story for the stage and this production will be designed by Rhys Jarman (Institute, Gecko), with original music by Jeremy Bradfield performed live by the 13-strong cast, choreography by former Phoenix Dance Theatre member Martin Hylton and lighting by Colin Grenfell (The Tempest, Improbable / Northern Stage).
The cast includes Alexandra Tahnee (Five Feet in Front, The Letter Room) as Alice; Christopher Price (The Riddler in BATMAN LIVE, international tour, and most recently in the region, Overdue at Alphabetti) as the White Rabbit / Great Blanco; Michael Blair (Mr Scratch, Northern Stage) as Tweedle Dee; Laura Riseborough (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Royal Shakespeare Company) as the Red Queen; Alice Blundell (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Northern Stage) as the White Queen; Clara Darcy (Brassed Off, York Theatre Royal & national tour) as the Cheshire Cat; and Andrew Bleakley (No Miracles Here, The Letter Room) as Tweedle Dum; plus a chorus of six performance students from Newcastle College.
Alice in Wonderland runs in Stage 1 from 25 November 2017 to 6 January, 2018.