Alice Through The Looking Glass

Published Thursday 20 December 2007 at 17:30 by Jeremy Brien

Tobacco Factory patrons are benefiting from a double entertainment whammy this Christmas.

Alternating with daytime productions of Travelling Light’s version of The Ugly Duckling aimed at the under sixes, Hattie Naylor has come up with a faithful adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s anarchic tale.

To her credit, Naylor has made no attempt to dumb down Carroll’s subversive dialogue or nonsense characters, but this does mean his topsy-turvy world is difficult to penetrate at the younger end of the target audience.

This was particularly true with the primary schools packing the matinee I attended, although older theatregoers will be entertained by the clever mix of Paul Dodgson’s quirky songs, the back-projected film and costume designer Sara Marshall’s authentic copy of John Tenniel’s original illustrations.

One highlight is entirely on film, as Ashley Christmas’s Walrus and Chris Bianchi’s Carpenter make short work of some splendidly mechanical oysters, and director Andy Burden, something of a specialist in physical theatre, makes sure Caroline Garland’s gentle Alice meets up with such familiar disruptive figures as Hannah Summers’ bossy Red Queen and Paul Mundell’s pragmatic Humpty Dumpty.