Brixton House – until 31 December 2022
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
Brixton House’s Christmas show is a madcap take on Alice in Wonderland set in Brixton. Eleven year old Alice runs onto a departing tube train and is separated from her mother after a blazing row. As she tries to keep calm, things take a bizarre turn, and she finds herself surrounded by strange characters. Some of the favourites from Lewis Carroll are here – the white rabbit becomes a nervous business rabbit who worries about work all the time, the Cheshire cat becomes a disembodied glitch in the computing system until we see his physical introverted self, and the mock turtle is a friendly tortoise observing the chaos but staying safely in her shell.
The train is under the control of the Queen of the Line, using the terrifying Jabberwocky and brutish guards to control the passengers. The passengers live in fear, repeating the mantra that the Queen is keeping them on the right track and taking them where they need to go, but a revolution is being planned. Unfortunately, the revolution is being planned over and over again by former driver Chatter and her motley crew of Rat, Pigeon and Nose – the three worst things you can find on a tube train – and they just can’t commit to actually revolting.
Alice is studying Lewis Carroll at school so is convinced this is all a dream at first, before deciding to face her fears and help defeat the Queen. Shankho Chaudhuri’s set is deceptively simple, with the audience seated on both sides of the train carriage and Rajiv Pattani and Alice Boyd’s lighting and sound design creating a magical and threatening atmosphere. Commuters who have lost all hope are weirdly disconcerting, the Jabberwocky’s simplicity doesn’t diminish the jeopardy, and hearing “Mind the Gap” will never feel quite the same again after seeing this show.
Balancing the needs of a family show – with a myriad of tube puns and Brixton jokes for the adults that will also make younger audience members connect with Alice, and slapstick silliness for the children – makes the show a little erratic pace-wise, but the charm and energy of the production is as unstoppable as the tube train the characters are trapped on, with director and lead writer Jack Bradfield keeping everything on track admirably. Gerel Falconer’s lyrics and the fabulous rap performances by Nkhanise Phiri and Toyin Ayedun-Alase are a joy, adding so much to their characters’ stories. Phiri is a revelation as Alice – embodying the stroppy tween whose belligerence is a shield for the confusion and pain she feels brilliantly. Ayedun-Alase is wonderful as the dual Wonderland aspects of her mother character – keeping them very similar on the surface and letting both their fears emerge more subtly than you would expect in a family show. Khai Shaw, Rosa Garland and Will Spence play the other passengers and trainlines with great wit and physicality.
The resolution, with Alice and her mother realising that they need to talk to each other about their feelings, being brave enough to break a cycle of behaviour and show the world who you really are, is surprisingly quiet after such an outlandish show, but feels just right. This might seem a little mawkish for some, but it is a family show and this is an important message for children and adults alike – and it is Christmas.
A wonderfully Brixton-centric production that will delight young and old, this Alice is a weird and wonderful trip through the wonderland of the underground full of heart and spirit.