Through the (Fringe) Looking Glass

thenudge.com

            Take a journey with me. Let’s tumble down the rabbit hole and let our imaginations take flight! This weekend I attended the Fringe Theatre performance of Alice’s Adventures Underground. It was a fully engaging experience and definitely worth the pretty steep tickets. The walk to The Vaults, the venue where the performance took place, was an adventure in itself. Brianna and I had to walk through the graffiti tunnel, a legal graffiti site, underneath the Waterloo train station. It was an uneasy tread for me at first, but I knew that it would all be worth it.

The graffiti tunnel
witness.theguardian.com

            We finally arrived at the venue with no time to spare (we were not the best when it came to directions), checked in and queued up with the rest of the group. We were then led into a small room that was full of junk including piles of cardboard boxes, mirrors on every wall, developing photographs, a bookcase and a grandfather clock. After a few moments of wandering around the room, we heard a faint knocking noise. Once we turned around to see where it was coming from, we discovered that a projection of the actress playing Alice was playing on the mirrors to give us instructions. As we listened to her, the lights flickered, the grandfather clock chimed and the bookcase flew open to reveal a pathway lined with book pages layering the walls and floor and hanging from the ceiling. We walked through the passage and ended up in a mirrored circular room with a clock as the ceiling. Soon, the room became the rabbit hole and the illusion of us falling lead to the opening of a new door and us ending up in Wonderland!

Alice reading
independent.co.uk

            This was where we met the White Rabbit and decided which path to take with the choices of “Eat Me” or “Drink Me.” Brianna and chose “Eat Me” and our adventure in Wonderland was finally underway! I don’t want to spoil too much since I already gave away the beginning, but I will try to continue without giving away much more. Once we chose which path to take, we were then broken up into two suits, either hearts or diamonds, and from there, our small group was broken up into two smaller groups and were taken on other story lines! Along the way we interacted with other characters including Humpty Dumpty, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, the Mad-Hatter and many more. We were given certain tasks along the way. Finally at the end, all groups ended up together again in the Queen of Heart’s courtroom.

The White Rabbit, March Hare and Mad-Hatter
photos.alastairmuir.com

            Usually in theatres, there is this thing called the fourth wall, the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. Alice’s Adventures Underground however, DEMOLISHED the fourth wall. It had the feeling of a maze or a haunted house that we walked through at Halloween, but it had a story line all the way through.

            

            This was one of my top five favorite performances that I’ve seen over here, and I plan on seeking out more performances like this one that I experienced in The Vaults of London.

Here is a teaser for Alice’s Adventures Underground: https://youtu.be/329RrbNHTac