This promenade piece from the company Les Enfants Terribles begins with a choice: “Eat me” or “Drink me”. The decision determines our path over the next 90 minutes, as we are led through extravagantly decorated tunnels and nooks beneath Waterloo Station.
Alice herself is relegated to a minor role in this tribute to the inventiveness of Lewis Carroll. Instead the star attraction is Samuel Wyer’s design — a mix of steampunk and Gothic elements, with visual and tactile treats embedded everywhere.
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This is an impressively engineered show, three years in development and boasting an immense production team. Writer Oliver Lansley, who co-directs with James Seager, ensures there are clever touches throughout. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are tetchy trapeze artists with ugly papier-mâché heads, while the Mock Turtle performs a melancholy song by former Jamie Cullum collaborator Alexander Wolfe. The caterpillar presides over a sleazy shisha lounge, Alison Fitzjohn’s Duchess creepily cradles a child that turns out to be a pig, and the Mad Hatter’s tea party is a whirl of vitality.
This isn’t one of those immersive experiences where participants are free to wander. Instead the route is rigidly defined. Since there are 12 start times each evening, with the actors having to repeat their performances on several dozen occasions, it’s an elaborate undertaking.
One of the results is we spend quite a bit of time waiting or queuing. This dampens the show’s momentum, but Carroll’s beguiling imagination and love of nonsense are vividly present.
Until August 31 (0871 230 1557, alice-underground.com)
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