We are sitting in a wooded dell, ranged on felled tree trunks around a small clearing. The summer’s evening is warm; fairy lights in bunting twinkle between branches. Four children arrive, with their stomping, snapping, camping-trip leader, Miss Dodgson. “Where are we?” she barks. One of the children, Lewis, consults a map: “Wonderland.” Dodgson snatches it from him: “Unfold it, silly! Now see what it says – Water on Blanding!” As it turns out, of course, Lewis is right. We are all in a wonderland of sorts – the make-believe world created by the Dukes theatre company in Williamson Park.
Andrew Pollard’s script reframes Lewis Carroll’s 1865 story as a quest. When Lewis is snatched by the vicious and voracious Jabberwock, Alice sets out to rescue her fellow camper. Encounters along the way provide the “weapons” she will need: a rattle from a pair of warring baby twins; pepper from the Duchess’s kitchen; tea leaves from the Mad Hatter’s party. As she goes, Alice learns to recognise her faults, stand up for what is right, and to answer the question Lewis sings before he is abducted: “How do you say sorry?” (one of the catchy numbers composed by musical director, Steven Markwick).
