Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Orange Tree Theatre, staged by the OT Young Company, is a high-energy reimagining that prioritises invention, immediacy, and youthful conviction over the slipperier universality of Lewis Carroll’s original. It is a production brimming with clever theatricality and commitment, even as its conceptual choices occasionally narrow rather than expand the story’s reach.
This adaptation makes an immediate and decisive shift away from the familiar image of Alice as a bored, privileged Victorian child drifting away from her tutor’s history lessons. Instead, Chinonyerem Odimba reframes Alice as a socially and environmentally conscious teen, painfully aware of the state of the world around her and actively positioning – othering – herself outside her peer group, believing herself to be acutely moral and intellectual. The production is clearly invested in giving Alice a stronger voice and greater agency, interpreting the source material as a series of events which simply happen to her. In OT’s production, she interrogates, challenges, and mulls over every interaction.
One of the production’s more intriguing choices is the use of multiple Alices: a central, fully realised protagonist, an opinionated, proud Alice who mirrors social judgement, and a mousy, anxious Alice who nonetheless adapts most quickly to Wonderland’s logic and the idea of senseless fun. This fragmentation is conceptually strong and allows different responses to strangeness and selfhood to literally coexist, though it periodically diffuses emotional focus.
While the production’s intention lends the character modern relevance in contemporary Britain, it sometimes manifests in ways that feel overly insistent rather than illuminating, even risk tipping her into something closer to a “pick me” archetype. Alice can drift into a self-consciously virtuous register that simultaneously expands her emotional range and reduces the sense of curiosity and openness that defines the original character.
This tension runs through the entire production. By rooting Wonderland so firmly in the language and concerns of modern Britain, the show gains specificity and urgency but sacrifices some of the original’s strangeness and universality. Carroll’s Wonderland has endured precisely because it resists fixed moral positions; here, meaning is more assertively signposted.
That said, the script is intelligently constructed, moving fluidly between original material and recognisable scenes from the source text. The Duchess scene feels closest in tone and rhythm to Carroll, offering a moment of grounding amid the adaptation’s more conceptually driven choices. The Caterpillar (enacted by multiple performers, with JJ Chilton as its talking head) takes on a role as a messenger of true curiosity and fun, in another effective reframing, lending philosophical weight without becoming didactic.
Design and staging are where this production truly excels. The Orange Tree’s intimate, in-the-round space is used to its absolute fullest, its four doors and balcony creating a sense of unpredictability that keeps eye and mind alert. Simple theatrical ideas land with clarity: the garden door becomes a simple headband with a golden rectangle and keyhole; Alice’s size change after drinking “Drink Me” is rendered through puppetry; her fall down the rabbit hole is suggested through glowing stick-doors. However, a crucial note about accessibility: this production makes extensive use of strobe lighting and rapid lighting changes. This oversight may meaningfully affect viewing experience, and would ideally be prefaced with clearer warnings.
Character work is energetic and sustained. The actors remain impressively in character throughout, even during the interval, when they roam the space offering riddles, dances, and playful provocations. This immersive approach builds a communal, mischievous atmosphere, making the audience feel complicit in the nonsense in the lead-up to the tea party.
The inclusion of original musical numbers adds to the sense of play and nonsense, with both the choreographic timing and the ensemble’s ability to execute them being commendable. In the latter half, the Mock Turtle (enacted by Jessica Millson) and her solo stand out as hilariously gloomy and sharply studied. But ultimately, the songs remain purely as texture rather than commentary, giving the show momentum without any lingering impact.
The OT Young Company’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a production that thinks hard and cares deeply, even when its conceptual confidence outpaces its subtlety. For its inventive staging, ensemble commitment, and willingness to take risks, it arrives at a 3/5 for me.
Inspired by Lewis Carroll
Writer: Chinonyerem Odimba
Director: Matt Hassall
Movement director: Liam Francis
Running time: 2h 20min including a 20-minute interval