Alice: Scottish Ballet - Festival Theatre, Edinburgh. 20th April 2010.

The ballet has been something I have always loved from when I was four and adamantly pursued ballet classes , even though my teacher said I had a 'Donald-Duck-Bum!' until now when I enjoy nothing more than being amazed at how the dancers move across the stage, find their characters with no words and manage to keep in time with every quaver, crotchet and upbeat!
Throughout the years I have experience Cinderella, Coppella, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet and many more of the classic performances that people book far in advance to be able to see however when i saw the more modern look of the new trailer for Alice, I knew this was one I had to see!

Tickets for this touring performance range from £10 - £40 depending on where you go to see it - the more you pay, the better your seat is! As a student I decided that the dress circle might have to go a miss this time and opted for the under 26's option of paying a tenner on the day and sitting wherever is left! I was seated in the stalls in what i like to call the belly of the theatre, you may not get a brilliant view but you are close to the orchestra which without there would be no magic! The Festival theatre is the largest in Scotland and second in the UK and was packed with children (mostly girls) dressed in Alice dresses and tiaras, young couples on romantic dates, students such as myself looking to relight their Alice in Wonderland flame and many more ages as I find the ballet usually attracts.

As the curtain lifted you could feel the excitment in the air, the wonder of what was to come and for me the curiosity (as always with Alice in Wonderland) - What would the Mad Hatter look like? The props, costumes and sets that appeared infront of our eyes were vibrant and enchanting. We see Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole and performance takes off and takes a slighly darker turn than you would expect from a well known children's book. The dancers move gracefully across the stage however their surroundings create this feeling for example the scenery, unsettling lighting in places and the costumes:

 This however did not in any way detract from the performace for myself. After our recent Worshop on Theatre and discussing how people need to find their character, explore and be able to become their character, I thought extensively about how this would have applied to the dancers portraying Kings and Queens, Cheshire Cats and Cards. This seemed like a change of roles for myself as I have been so used to just sitting back and enjoying the dancing. This added area to focus added greatly to my experience and I feel that because of the added fasination, I enjoyed the performance on a whole other level.

I could write atleast another 300 words on the production of Alice but my ultimate suggestion would be, buy and ticket and go to see it!


Further reading:

Styan, J. (1975). Drama, Stage and Audience. London: Cambridge University Press.