Artistic Director: Glenn Elston
If their current Alice in Wonderland is anything to go by, the Australian Shakespeare Company are well worth catching this summer in Kew Gardens. For entertainment value and sheer professionalism, they’re easily a cut above most of the homegrown Shakespeare-in-the-garden shows, now a staple of British pub entertainment. Any company that can keep a lawnful of under-5s spellbound, while amusing their adult keepers, is truly a thing of wonder.
The little ones are summoned to the front of the lawn and told they’re to be caterpillars. Soon, they’re gleefully responding to the gentle rhythms of pantomime call and response. The Company take a breezy approach to the original Lewis Carroll text. There are some new characters, but who could complain about Bill the Lizard, who, as a west-country gardener, takes charge of the caterpillars? Basically, though, the outline plot remains in place. There are lots of accomplished song and dance numbers, so it’s quite a long time before we meet Alice, in traditional frock and pinafore.
We hear about, rather than see, her trials with the Drink Me bottle and Eat Me cake, although there’s the very funny appearance of a giant pair of Alice arms suddenly protruding from a window of the playful set. We’ve already met the Dodo, who, together with a wonderfully camp Cockatoo, has been nipping between picnic rugs teasing us from the start. And in due course, there’s the Cheshire Cat, Humpty Dumpty, the Mad Hatter and most of the familiar characters.
The acting is accomplished and the costumes superb, not least the huge ones belonging to the Queen and King, who stalk about on stilts. By this stage in the proceedings, the cast has daringly shifted the action. A lot of game adults volunteer to become playing cards and are trooped round to the grass behind the audience, the children encouraged to follow. Here, the croquet game is transformed into an endearing crawling race.
It’s all the most innocent of pantomimes, with just the occasional jest for grown-up amusement, including a lovely line from the Cook about feeling ‘hotter than Timothée Chalamet’.
The setting is, of course, a delight, though the 3pm Heathrow plane traffic overhead is a bit of a challenge. But all in all, the show is a joy.
Runs until 31 August 2025