Stunning College ‘Alice’ production wows audiences

11 March 2022

An innovative, inventive and ambitious College production performed over two nights has been met with huge acclaim from the audiences, with performing students drawing praise from parents, guests, fellow students and staff alike.

‘Alice in Underworld’ was a piece of promenade theatre, involving cast leading the audience around all corners of the College that had been made into the rabbit hole down which Alice falls especially for the evening.

Student actors, dancers and musicians came together to start work on the complex production early in the academic year, and finally had the pleasure to be able to perform in front of audiences for the first time in two years.

The show itself involved six different versions of the Alice protagonist guiding audiences through sections of each of their dream sequences, including age-old popular Lewis Carroll characters such as the Mad Hatter, Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee and the Queen of Hearts.

Each room used throughout the College campus was decorated accordingly, taking viewers through a physical enactment of the psychedelia, with direct interaction with the actors and other performers, whose improvisation all the way through was accomplished, and regularly hilarious for those watching.

The journeys around College were interspersed with musical and dance segments, performed by multiple dancers and two different College bands.

Head of Performing Arts, Sian Murray, directed the show with coordination from Dance teacher Kirsty and Digital Music Production teacher Alec in their specialist fields.

After attending the show, College Principal Mike Kilbride said: “It was an absolute pleasure. The whole affair was superbly ambitious, with multiple Alices, live bands, dancers and food. How Sian and her team, with special mention to Kirsty and Alec, pulled it off is beyond me.”

“The students were amazing: the quality of performance, requiring significant improvisation, was fanatically crafted and enormously mature. What a credit they are to themselves, those who directed them and the College in general.

“An enjoyable, inspiring and thought-provoking evening.”

“We saw this last night and it was amazing. Thank you for putting on a brilliant show. Well done to everybody involved - you’re all very talented.”

“My daughter took my little boy and he loved it so much. Thank you.”

“Well done everyone involved.”