State Theatre, Melbourne,
September 13 (second night cast)
The night belonged to Alice. Or, more precisely, to the superb dancing of Lauren Cuthbertson, guest artist from the Royal Ballet, for whom the role of Alice had been created. Her combination of abandon and precision, freedom and technical control transcended the steps, putting her dance wholly at the service of the character and the story with a beguiling naturalness. Alice is on stage for almost the whole three act ballet and her galvanizing presence and captivating girlish spunk gave cohesion to the action as we followed her down the rabbit hole into a surreal and comically grotesque world. It is actually hard to imagine the overall ballet being anywhere near as impressive without such a commanding performance in the title role. It was a testimony to Cuthbertson and to the cast on the night that the almost three hour long ballet did not drag, but on the contrary, maintained the interest and involvement of the audience throughout.
Overall Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is honest old-fashioned entertainment, packed with clever details and overbrimming with inventiveness, incorporating classical balletic structures (pas de deux, trios, ensembles, divertissements) with the latest in computer graphics and digital technology. On the night the pace never slackened from the moment when Lewis Carroll (Adam Bull) disappeared under the black cloth of his camera and reappeared as the White Rabbit, with Alice following him into an alternative reality peopled by weirdly distorted characters taken from the ‘real’ world they have just left behind.
Wheeldon's choreography and character delineation scintillates throughout, aided and abetted by the splendid sets and costumes of Bob Crowley, a fantastical score (Joby Talbot), not to forget the excellent projections and lighting. All aspects work marvellously together to create an entertaining spectacle and an engaging story ballet that has it all; from spoofs of The Nutcracker (Arabian Dance, Waltz of the Flowers) and of the Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty, to lyrical moments between the young lovers Alice and Jack (Cuthbertson and Christopher Rodgers-Wilson), and the macabre humour of the hellish kitchen where a pig is being fed into a sausage machine and murderous mayhem reigns inside "Home Sweet Home". A Fornasetti face weeps Alice's Lake of Tears, the Mad Hatter tap dances his way through the tea party (Jarryd Madden). Andrew Killian undulated his way impressively through an Arabian dance spoof and Paul Knobloch was suitably crass as the vaudevillian Duchess.
The pink flamingos doubling as mallets in the crazed croquet game are nicely realised, as is the Cheshire Cat whose limbs detach and coalesce in memorable sequences. Some of it is camp, some is clearly over the top, and there are surrealist touches in abundance as well as references to other artists and to cult movies. This is dance as story telling and it succeeded on all sorts of levels, creating a wildly entertaining story ballet grounded in 19th and 20th century traditions and demonstrating just how well that format can work today, in the 21st century. The judicious use of clever computer graphics recreates the kind of thrill audiences would have experienced in the past watching the special effects of their day, such as flying wires, storm scenes, or ghostly apparitions, to name a few. The projections of our day are a contemporary equivalent, and the audience genuinely enjoyed the extravaganza, being entertained and amused and engaged all the way.
Among the supporting principal roles Nicola Curry clearly stood out for her commanding portrayal of the dementedly malevolent Queen of Hearts who takes every opportunity and more to demand a beheading and breathe fear into the hearts of her hapless cavaliers in a Rose Adagio gone wrong. Her mannerisms and characterisation were one of a piece with her flawless dancing.
A very slight caveat about the ending - while placing the whole ballet in the context of a story within a story allowed for a simpler resolution of the love interest between Alice and Jack, to my mind it felt like an unnecessary addition. But that is a very slight blemish on a brilliantly realised story ballet.
All in all, the Australian Ballet is to be congratulated for taking this ballet on with all its substantial attendant costs. It would have been no mean feat to produce it and stage it successfully with no expenses spared on the elaborate costumes and sets, but it was an effort, judging by the audience's response on the night, which was clearly worth it.
- Irina Kuzminsky
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland plays in Melbourne until 30 september and Sydney 5-22 December.
Photos: Jeff Busby