The Royal Ballet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Review ★★★★★

You can’t argue with the universal appeal of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a classic of children’s literature with much to charm adults, too. It tells the absurdist tale of a little girl who falls down a rabbit hole and encounters all manner of peculiar characters – the scary Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and so on.

Over the years the book has had countless theatre adaptations, generated at least one opera, and even a gloriously zany hip hop show based on its main characters. And in the hands of the daring choreographer Christopher Wheeldon in 2011 it become a ballet. Of sorts.

It opens with an idyllic scene: a tea party in the garden of Alice’s home, the grand house and leafy garden depicted with fine detail in Bob Crowley’s set. Lewis Carroll (James Hay) is reading to Alice (Francesca Hayward) and her sisters (Marianne Tsembenhoi and Bomin Kim).The gardener’s boy, Jack (William Bracewell), offers his friend Alice a red rose, and in exchange she gives him a jam tart; only for her harsh, authoritarian mother (Lauren Cuthbertson) to accuse Jack of stealing and fire him.

Soon things take on a dream quality and Carroll turns into The White Rabbit.


The Royal Ballet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, James Hay as The White Rabbit © ROH 2024 Photo: Alice Pennefather

Alice follows him down the rabbit hole; a marvellously inventive whirling back projection depicting the long fall. In fact, in this work Bob Crowley’s designs, Jon Driscolll and Gemma Carrington’s projections and Natasha Katz’s lighting, all superlative, do much of the heavy lifting, jollied along by Joby Talbot’s storming cinematic score, spiced with exotic woodwind, and very prominent brass and percussion.

The reason is that Carroll’s book relies almost entirely on language and the subversion of language through nonsense and wordplay, something which, of course, you can’t translate into dance.

The result is a very busy work with little characterisation, and despite its assault on the senses I found it strangely unengaging. On press night, a subdued audience only roared into life in Act III reacting to the antics of the Queen of Hearts, danced with exquisite comic timing by Lauren Cuthbertson.


The Royal Ballet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lauren Cuthbertson as The Queen of Hearts © ROH 2024 Photo: Alice Pennefather

There was excellent dancing from ensemble and soloists alike, particularly from Francesca Hayward in a role that is surely an endurance test – she’s on stage practically for the duration – and there was lovely chemistry between her and William Bracewell whose Jack turns into The Knave of Hearts in Wonderland.


The Royal Ballet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Francesca Hayward as Alice, William Bracewell as The Knave of Hearts © ROH 2024 Photo: Alice Pennefather

Elsewhere I liked Daichi Ikarashi’s very green frog with his elastic jump and Leon Dixon’s bug-eyed Fish, but found that Gary Avis’s demented and very camp Duchess would perhaps benefit from dialling down just a notch.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is more of a show, and an overlong one at that, than a ballet, its eclectic choreography appearing at times pointless and lacking the gripping narrative power of Christopher Wheeldon’s better works.


Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is in rep at he ROH 28 September to 1 November; and again 13 June to 5 July 2025 with a variety of casts.

Live Cinema relay, starring Francesca Hayward and William Bracewell, on 15 October 2024, Encores from 20 October. To find a participating cinema near you click here