“Who are you?” asks the Caterpillar. Alice replies, “I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”
And so it was, that the audience was taken along on this journey down the rabbit hole, with the talented actors of the Bangalore School of Speech and Drama in their production of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland .
This retelling of the old classic was performed at Chowdiah Memorial Hall here.
It was an array of talent on show, which began, of course, with Alice — or rather, three Alices. Playing Alice in her varying sizes, the three main actors portrayed Alice's confused outrage at the madness of Wonderland to perfection. Even the littlest Alice, only five years old, delivered her lines confidently, not once missing a beat.
Off with their heads!
Always a crowd-pleaser, the Queen of Hearts charmed her way into ours despite her disagreeable habit of ordering the beheading of almost everyone within a 50-m radius — including a few members of the audience! Other favourites, such as the Cook, the Duchess and Cheshire Cat, were equally entertaining.
In typical fashion, it was the Mad Hatter who stole the show with his idiosyncrasies, quirky philosophies, psychedelic costume and general, well, madness.
The impeccably executed repartee between the Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse had the entire audience chuckling and the trio managed to capture the hilarity of one of literature's most famous tea parties.
This being said, the show was a success not only due to its main actors every part of the production was engaging, from the acting to the sets, costumes and music.
School founder and director of the play, Zulfia Shaikh, and her students, seemed to have well captured the nonsensical genius of Lewis Carroll's masterpiece.
