This week I went to see an interactive theatre version of Alice in Wonderland (called Alice’s Adventures Underground) at the Vaults underneath Waterloo station.
I really enjoy interactive theatre. It’s getting now that if I go to the theatre and I have to sit still in the audience and just watch then I find myself getting restless.
This was an excellent show with all the favourite characters from the book, complete with a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (cocktails rather than tea) and a trial at the end to see who stole the tarts.
There was a choice between ‘eat me’ and ‘drink me’, which decided the door you went through and consequently, I’m guessing, your experience of the show. I picked the drink me door, because the eat me one looked a little small and I worried I might get claustrophobic doing whatever was happening in there. When I got there I realised it was an optical illusion anyway and both doors were the same size.
In the bar; most people adhered to the request for red and black outfits for the tea party
At £36 a ticket (or more) this is not a cheap option for a night out, although still cheaper than Secret cinema and the ilk (Secret cinema are doing Star Wars this summer and charging £78).
When I was a kid, Alice was my favourite book. I identified with the bored little girl who followed a rabbit down a rabbit-hole and got to have all the great adventures.
This year is the 150 year anniversary of the book. If you’re really keen there is a small exhibition on at the Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green (and it’s free). They have some displays showing Alice’s influence on fashion (more than you might think; not just the ‘Alice’ hairband)) and there are also lots of different editions of the book on display.
Sarah’s useless Alice fact: in the first colour pictures of Alice, she wore a yellow dress; she only became identified with wearing a blue dress after Disney got hold of her. In some contemporary versions of the book, she now wears jeans. Jeans, really? Sacrilege.
Categories: London
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We recently spent a week at Duloe Manor, who claim to be the place where Carroll stayed and watched the Reverend and his daughter play croquet. I have no idea if it’s true or not, but Cornwall certainly inspires fairy tales with it’s rugged, wild scenery!
Oh don’t know that place but sounds fun.
There’s a lot of thought now that Lewis Caroll was a Paedophile, and certainly he liked to take somewhat risqué pics of children, but since we have no way of knowing now I prefer to gloss over that in my mind.
Sounds an excellent night- so what did you do behind the drink me doors
I didn’t want to say too much and ruin it for people still planning on going, but it was all excellent; puppets, a circus act, holograms, little plays and a bit of audience participation. Really clever.