Alice and her adventures in Wonderland has been an endearingly popular story since it was first written and published by Lewis Carroll back in 1865, and it’s about to get shook to its Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat core as new adaptation wonder.land re-imagines it in the modern age of online gaming. If that’s not enough to spin your head like you’ve just seen the Jabberwocky behind the mirror in your room then the addition of it being a musical adaptation with Blur’s Damon Albarn providing the music should do the trick.
The book and lyrics for the musical have been written by Moira Buffini, whose previous credits include writing the screenplays for Tamara Drewe and Byzantium, with Albarn collaborating with her to put together the music to sit behind the mad new take on the surreal classic. The production is being directed by Ruffus Norris (Broken), who was announced recently as the next artistic director for the National Museum, taking over the role from April 2015.
wonder.land will first premier at the Palace Theatre as part of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) with previews between the 29th June and the 1st July 2015, and a short run from the 2nd July until the 12th July 2015. Tickets for the performances at the Palace Theatre are £21.25 for the previews and between £19.25 and £46.25 for the rest of the performances. There’s a £5 reduction in price for concessions and Greater Manchester residents on a lower wage can get tickets for just £12.
Following its stint at the Festival, it will transfer to the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre in November 2015, with performance running into December. Ticket prices haven’t been announced as of yet for the London production run of the play, but we’re expecting them to be relatively similar to this of the Manchester International Fedtival.
The story itself is set in the modern world of high tech computers, fibre optic broadband and online communities as Lewis Carroll’s story gets the biggest shake up in its history. It follows 12-year old Ali, who spends her spare time immersed in the online virtual world known as wonder.land, where absolutely anything is possible. Escaping into the realms of its infinite possibilities, safely away from her school bullies and troubled home life, Ali takes on the profile name Alice, far removed from the trappings of the real life.
In wonder.land, she’s much more confident, but as she starts to meet other characters in the virtual world, including Dum, Dee, the Cheshire Cat and the scary Red Queen, she starts to notice that there’s an odd familiarity to them. As time goes on she starts to struggle to separate reality from the fiction of the online game as they start to come together eerily and with very dangerous consequences.
The involvement of Damon Albarn in the production is pretty impressive in itself, especially when you consider the fact that he’s only just released his first solo album, Everyday Robots, and he’s just about to release The Magic Whip, the first new Blur album in twelve years. Add to that the rumour that we might be getting new material from Gorillaz in 2016 and you’ve got a pretty busy Brit-pop legend.
wonder.land designed by Rae Smith, with projections by 59 Productions and lighting by Paule Constable, making a full house in terms of the design team behind War Horse. Once it’s completed its production at the National Theatre it’ll be transferring to the Gallic charm of Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2016, so if you miss it over here, you’ve always got the second of the two cities to see the tale in.
