Alice's Adventures Underground, Les Enfants Terribles' bizzaro maze-like piece of immersive theatre, is unlike anything else in London right now. Every inch of the sprawling Waterloo Wonderland is packed from floor to ceiling with curious objects, Easter eggs which evoke Lewis Carroll's original stories, and mysterious details which will have audience members temporarily transported into the psychedelic world.
But what would Wonderland be without its assortment of kooky characters? Alice's Adventures Underground is crawling with recognisable characters from the books, and one of the most iconic of all, the Hatter, is played at some performances by actor Alan Pearson.
It's Pearson's first year in Wonderland, and as well as playing the Hatter he also performs as the Mock Turtle, the Joker, the Knave of Hearts and the Wasp in a Wig. Quite an assortment. There are, however, some other parts which he wishes he could have a crack at... 'I’d love to play the Queen of Hearts, I think that’d be a
great part to play. There are so many great characters, and the
puppet characters are really great fun as well - the Cat and Humpty Dumpty. I
think I wouldn’t mind having a go at those.' Without a doubt, the puppetry within the show is extraordinarily clever, and showstopping characters like the fearsome towering Jabberwocky will stay with audiences long after they depart.
But the Hatter, such a well known and loved character from the books, and woven into popular culture so deeply, is surely a holy grail character for most actors. 'I love the part of the mad hatter,
but also I heard so many great things about the piece the last time it was
around, it was a bit of a no-brainer really', Pearson says of his initial reaction to being involved in the production. 'I’ve never done anything to this scale. I’ve worked in
improvisation before but this sort of level of improvisation where you’re
transported into the world - and it is a world, it’s so vast, the space that we’re
using – is something I’ve never had to tackle before'
Speaking of the vast space, the sheer scale and detail of Alice's Adventures Underground is definitely an element which helps the production to feel so real, and for audience members the whole experience of being led through Wonderland can feel extremely disorienting in the best way possible. It's not hard to imagine that the actors in the piece must feel similarly flustered, but Pearson elaborates that despite some early hiccups, his route through Wonderland is ingrained in his muscle memory now. 'I remember in
the first week we were running around flapping, lots of us had little bits of
paper in our pockets just with details
on to tell us exactly where to go, but it’s ingrained now. Now we look at the
time and see that we’ve only got 15 seconds until our next scene, but that
feels like so much time, it feels like a luxury. But initially the panic would
set in, and there was a lot of running involved!' Nevertheless, the finely choreographed nature of the production, which sees several large groups of people navigating through the world at once, is immensely impressive. 'It’s down to the second, so what’s been put in place are sound cues and audio cues, and visual cues to tell the actors "okay you need to move this audience now because in ten seconds another 26 people are coming through". We make it seem very seamless and effortless without the audience members knowing at all. You get a real sense of satisfaction as an actor knowing that you’ve achieved this'.
What with Alice's Adventures Underground being such a unique night out, and very different to a lot of the entertainment which London has to offer, it's interesting to think about exactly what kind of audiences come to see the show. Pearson describes how people come for multiple different reasons, 'we’ve
got a lot of creative people that come, actors and such, but also people who
just like the idea of Alice in Wonderland. It’s very cult, isn’t
it, I suppose.'
Undoubtedly the crowds are flocking to the show to experience something different, and in Alice's Adventures Underground the audience's interactions do help to shape the show, 'it’s entirely unique and dependent on the audience members that come through, and what they give and offer' Pearson explains. However, as with all shows of its type, it's seen its fair share of unusual audience offerings. 'We’ve got audience members that want to come for more of the party
experience, so we’ve had a few, well, a lot of drunken people come through. We
had a woman who took her trousers down and pissed on the floor.' Not exactly the sort of behaviour you'd expect to find at your standard West End musical, or anywhere in fact. 'We always find it constantly hilarious because there’s so many audience
members coming through each night, there’s always something which is quite
strange. But I think weeing in the Tulgey Wood is up there'. It'd be hard to argue with that!
Alice's Adventures Underground is an exciting addition to London's theatre and nightlife scene, and Alan Pearson's zeal for the production is undeniable, as he enthuses, 'I think it’s magical and the finer details are incredible, and I think everyone gets an incredibly unique experience out of it.'
Don't miss Alan Pearson in Alice's Adventures Underground, an immersive piece of theatre which you'll want to keep on returning to again and again.
Find out more information by visiting www.alice-underground.com and read my review of the show at www.talkstageytome.co.uk/2017/05/review-alices-adventures-underground
