Review: Alice in Wonderland at Birkenhead Park

Aug 3 2011 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

IT SOUNDS like such a wonderfully whimsical idea, doesn’t it?

Alice in Wonderland in the Park. Have a picnic. Bring the family.

And in the main that’s exactly what it is. A beautifully performed and superbly cast colourful extravaganza with a quite astonishing amount of energy

There is tremendous imagination at work in realising the book for the stage, Alice’s frustration at being unable enter Wonderland and her initial entrance down the rabbit hole being two particularly memorable scenes in performance full of them.

Clad in blue and white gingham dress and big black boots, former Liverpool Community College student Aiysha Nugent-Robinson barely puts a foot wrong in the title role.

But if she is challenged for top honours by Eleanor Stephens as Alice’s sister/Cook/ Doormouse, realistically it is unfair to single out individuals in the tremendously talented multi-tasking cast.

And if it’s not all fun and games, that’s no slight on the production.

A children’s classic Alice in Wonderland may be – and my nine-, five-, and three-year-olds all had a whale of a time at the park – but it has an undeniably unsettling edge in parts that Off the Ground convey very well before returning to the jollity.

Andrew Greenhalgh

See What’s On panel (left) for details of further performances.