Alice in Wonderland

Derby Theatres' Alice in Wonderland

On the 21st December a performance of Alice and wonderland was held at Derby Theatre. It is a new adaption of the book by Lewis carroll that has been edited by Mike Kenny and directed by Sarah Brigham. 

The story of Alice in Wonderland is widely known and is a popular children's book, Cartoon and Major motion picture.  With a cast of 27 the performance of Alice in Wonderland was a great new, and inventive way of telling the story of Alice.

The cast were actor musicians and the performance contained original songs of which were well written and composed beautifully. The use of instruments through the performance showed a great deal of skill and complimented the different personalities of the individual characters. 

Alice in Wonderland Rehearsal

Stanislavski mentioned that the performance process is equally as important as the performance its self. This is because without the rehearsal where can a well put together show be produced and worked on?
This rehearsal photo of the cast shows the individual instruments used and also shows part of the set which in the show is movable and becomes a big part of telling the story.

Alice in Wonderland First Half

The start of the performance is very different to a story and is also related to modern life. The performance is set during exam season for Alice and her friends. Who turn out to be different characters of the famous story. This shows tat the performance has been adapted for an older audience and that Alice is no longer just for younger children, but for young adults and older adults. This was an enjoyable difference in the story and also engaged me as an audience member more as i could relate to it.

Alice in Wonderland Tweedel dum/Tweedel Dee

Costumes for the performance contributed to the colour scheme of the entire story. The costumes helped to create the individual characters and were unique to the different personalities that we saw throughout the duration of the performance. 'Costume Continuum' (Kirby, 1972, p4) is about how we interpret a costume in day to day life and whether it makes it a costume or whether a costume being worn signifies acting or a performance. However in Alice in Wonderland the costumes are clear and vibrant and enable the actors to truly become their character. Creating an amazing scene for audience members to look at especially when emerged in strobe lights and coloured gels.


The most known feature of the Alice in Wonderland stories is that Alice grows and shrinks throughout her travels. This is done in different ways depending on the performance type. In this particular version Alice is played by 4 different people. The main Alice is the same actress throughout however, when Alice eats/drinks something the other actresses come into the performance. All of the 4 performers are slightly shorter than the other and therefore create the different stages of Alice's size changes. This was a comedic part of the performance each time as the different performers don't look alike and also played parts all together. It was nice to see younger performers acting alongside older and more experienced performers.

"an energetic, funny and exuberant performance that delivers on pretty much every level"
(The reviews Hub)

The performance overall was very well put together and kept the audience engaged throughout. There was always something going on and it was a great show to see as a theatre production. The characters were all very well portrayed with lots of energy which was nice to see that the performers were enjoying themselves. The performance may have been a fictional performance but the type of acting was definitely high up on the scale of the acting and not acting continuum.

(Majority of photos and illustrations for Derby Theatre pages are taken by Robert Day and Steve Gresty)