wonder.land: it’s a tale we all know well, this time reexamined through the prism of our 21st century addiction to the digital doings on our gadgets’ screens and good old fashioned teenage malaise.
Now showing at the National Theatre, wonder.land – a new musical by Damon Albarn and Moira Buffini, directed by Rufus Norris – reimagines Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland for the digital age. An invitation to go behind the scenes of the show and attend a performance drew me down the rabbit hole last week.
Woo hoo? For sure. I very much enjoyed the show (and was wowed indeed with the chance to shimmy backstage just before it).
Behind the scenes highlights included the chance to get up close to some of the props and costumes. Taking a gander at the Alice wigs, the springy White Rabbit costume and original sketches for costume designs was neato. It was also super cool to briefly meet Director (of wonder.landwonder.land was to get more young adult butts in seats for a relatable cultural outing. I think may be onto something there as a mixed aged audience with whom I was seated seemed to be having a lot of fun; like Wicked there’s plenty of hat tipping to the plights and delights of teenage girl-dom.
As for my own personal experience as an audience member, I had a lot of fun too.
Lois Chimimba put on an especially engaging and endearing performance in the lead role as Aly, though it must be said no performances were less than spot on. A mix of seemingly mundane props zipping round the stage and an explicitly not mundane feast-for-the-eyes assortment of phenomenal visual elements (of both physical and onscreen varieties) made the two and a half hour (with intervernal) fly by with Hal Fowler (MC, Cheshire Cat and Caterpillar) assisting with the riveting clip in his part as the curatorial MC.
Music helped with the brisk pace as well. I can easily say I enjoyed the songs (and rather rocking arrangements). However, I didn’t walk out humming any in particular and none really stood out.
A good one for everybody (though please note the National Theatre points out “teenage issues” and “some strong language” render it “not suitable for children under ten,” wonder.land runs until the end of April 2016 at the Olivier Theatre, National Theatre located at Upper Ground, South Bank, SE1 9PX. Find out more at nationaltheatre.org.uk.
