Alice: Return to Wonderland review – a wonderfully whimsical new rabbit hole to go down | stage

WHas a hat happened to Alice? Why is she so angry and where is her Alice band? Alice (Eliane Mae West) before us, in a gray skirt suit, acts like a completely boring adult. Then again, it’s no longer in Wonderland: it’s post-war Cardiff and a single mother facing some serious issues: a bombed house, a husband lost in the war and a free-spirited daughter, Carys (Marie-Flour), on the brink of adulthood, who wants to stay a child and play.

All Wonderland left Alice Liddell (the full name of the child’s friend on whom Lewis Carroll may have based his books). She is a city planner at Cardiff Council, and is heading an unpopular project to turn the street where children play into a multi-storey car park. But the Queen of Hearts, the tyrannical ruler of Wonderland, wants a croquet rematch. So the White Rabbit (Keiron Self) infiltrates Alice’s life and transports her back to a wonderland inhabited by characters from the classic tale. They are all given new stories, like the wayward fairytale crew in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

Hannah McPake’s whimsical new Christmas musical conjures a Carol scene of fantasy, hallucination and dream (aided by Elin Steele’s perverse design), adds its own mix of children’s play and its metaphors for power and tyranny, and infuses it all with a witty sense of humour.

There is a five-piece band on stage with actors and musicians dressed like Wonderlanders. The songs are strong (McPake’s lyrics, Lucy Rivers’ music) – some are a bit wordy but there’s a lot to it. Red is a powerful, catchy song sung by Red Queen (Caitlin Lavagna). Out of My Box/Life on the Edge, by Humpty Dumpty (Oliver Wood) reprized as an Elvis impersonator, is entertaining. And there’s an infectious number in “Guess Who’s Back,” sung by Alice, the unicorn (Emily Evanna Hawkins) and the Hatter (Max James).

Carroll’s Alice stories are arguably coded searches for identity (“Who am I in the world?” Alice says over and over again). This musical includes that existentialism, as in the Hatter’s song Who Are You? She discovers — or rediscovers — who she is in the end.

Steele’s costumes are gorgeous, while her dolls range from cute to amazing: the terrifying Jabberwock, when he appears, is breathtaking.

This is an imaginative and fun way to reframe an old story about the importance of imagination and the joy of play. You don’t stop playing because you grow up, you grow up because you stop playing, the Wonderland characters say to Alice. Through play, she learns how to cherish her inner child. A lesson for all of us.