Composers: Catherine Church, Jill Dowse, Laurence Hunt and Jules Bushell
Directors: Catherine Church and Simon Plumridge
Curiouser and curiouser would certainly be a way to describe Platform 4’s The Alice Project. This gig theatre production loosely tells the story of Alice in Wonderland – but if you didn’t already know the basic plot you might be somewhat confused.
The quirky style of music works well and fits in the zany world of Wonderland. The performers, particularly Catherine Church and Jill Dowse, do a great job at capturing the bonkers feel that the piece is clearly going for. The show does start off quite slowly, but the pace picks up as the show goes on. This is particularly down to Jill Dowse’s larger than life performance as the Queen of Hearts – a fantastically fun moment.
The cast made up of Church and Dowse, alongside Laurence Hunt and Jules Bushell, are all musically very gifted. They swap from instrument to instrument effortlessly, often playing rather unusual instruments. A lot of the instruments are large ones though and limit opportunities for movement. The sections that do allow for more movement, such as Procession, are great fun to watch.
This production draws interesting parallels between the bonkers world of Alice in Wonderland and the real world by including the voices of a diverse mix of real Alices. When creating the show, Platform 4 met with 40 Alices who live in the New Forest, where the original Alice Liddell was from, from babies to the elderly and everyone else in between. The use of these moments of recorded dialogue raise interesting questions around identity – “I can hardly recall who I was this morning” seems quite a relatable sentiment.
At times, however it can be difficult to get invested in the piece without a strong, clear narrative. One almost wonders whether having an additional performing playing Alice amongst the zany musicians could be beneficial. The moments in which we fall in love with Catherine Church as Alice are the ones that really grip the audience – particularly in moments like The Trial.
The Alice Project is a fascinating look at Lewis Carroll’s classic tale. It raises interesting questions and helps people relate to the fantasy story, but a little more focus on telling the story amongst the weird, wonderful and very well performed music could have really elevated the production.
Reviewed on 31st March 2025
