Adapted from Lewis Carroll by Glenn Elston, Australian Shakespeare Company
Rippon
Lea House & Gardens, until Jan 26 (Tues to Sat)
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 8, 2013
Stars:***
The cast of Alice in Wonderland
Suffering summer holiday
fatigue and need some lively outdoor entertainment for young children? Look no
further than Alice in Wonderland at Rippon Lea.
Glenn Elston’s interactive,
perambulating and colourful production delivers familiar, eccentric characters and
zany scenes from Lewis Carroll: Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Red Queen’s croquet
match and kangaroo court trial, Cheshire cat, Mock Turtle and the giant
Caterpillar.
Excited children get to dance
and sing, scamper through an inflatable rabbit tunnel, play caterpillars and
hedgehogs, shout answers to the Mad Hatter’s (Dennis Manahan) riddles and scramble
between the legs of their parents during the croquet game.
The timid White Rabbit (Kathleen
Douglas) teaches the littlies how to tell the time according to his own rules (“It’s
not four o’clock. It’s tea time!”), and to sing along with his tune, I’m Late.
Gemma Bishop is
charmingly naïve and warm as Alice, Ross Daniels is a hoot as the smug,
contrary and nasal-voiced Caterpillar who seems to be affected by magic
mushrooms.
Lea Porcaro is bold and
bolshy as the Duchess who eats insanely modern cuisine such as mustard ice
cream, and practises in tough love on her baby.
Terri Brabon is
impressively murderous as the Red Queen who believes in sentencing before
verdict and booms, “Off with her head!” at regular intervals.
The show also caters for
an adult sense of humour and some parents even get to dress up idiotically as
playing cards and parade around cheerfully during the croquet match.
Take a picnic, sunscreen
and the kids and have a deliciously diverting time with Alice and her band of
madcap pals.
The Wind in
the Willows is also running at Botanical Gardens Tues to Sat until Jan 26
By Kate Herbert
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