Alice's Adventures Under Ground: An Anarchic super quick Opera REVIEW

Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for Alice in Wonderland in any format. It's one of my most loved stories. It's funny, bizarre and has just a hint of nastiness to it that make it in my opinion one of the best children's books of all time. So when I found out the Royal Opera House was doing a 55 minute opera of both stories I knew I had to get down their and see it.




Firstly for those of you thinking you could never afford this experience let me start by telling you my ticket was literally only £3. I actually ended up buying four tickets but two of my group couldn't make it so I gave them away to two women in the gift shop who ended up watching the show with us.

Anyway Gerald Barry's opera is unlike anything I have ever seen. It's bizarre, anarchic and completely bonkers much like its subject matter. It goes at a breakneck speed through the two books subject matter barely allowing its stars who mostly play multiple roles (bar Lewis Caroll and the titular Alice) to breathe. All the stars were amazing especially as they all had so much to do including Jabberwocky three times in different languages!

The production is brilliant as well a hodgepodge of the original Tenniel illustrations with the costumes being switched around. Tweedledee and Tweedledum wear big ice creams on their heads, Alice wears a caged crinoline at all times and The Cheshire Cat is a beautiful articulated puppet that moves in the way only the Cheshire Cat could.

Overall This was a fantastic experience and I'm so glad I got to go. It was also lovely to seeso many children there enjoying themselves.