NEVER out of print since it was first published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the best known stories ever written. Although thought of, and usually described as, a children’s novel, full of symbolism and surreal twists and turns, it has also found itself dissected and interpreted in literally hundreds of different ways by erudite adults.

At its heart however, Alice’s Adventures as visually captured by John Tenniel are a wonderful fantasy world for children of all ages to lose themselves in. Within those fantasies are as many harsh realities as you will find in the modern world or hidden on your mobile phone, but wrapped up in a cocoon of wise, witty and genuinely humorous storytelling.

It is one thing to have an ambition to share the love of these stories, full of unique characters, with a theatre audience, but quite another to do so within the charming space of the Atheneum and keeping the production within the limited budget of the Limelight Players. That was the mammoth task that director Heather Hughes, producer Wendy Dopheide, and their enthusiastic backstage and on-stage teams set themselves – and, with a dazzling array of costumes, splendid masks, clever use of videos, sound and lighting, they told Lewis Carroll’s story and brought his characters alive in a visually attractive and uncluttered manner.

Thirteen year old Lily King, making her Limelight debut as Alice, led the 27 well-portrayed characters who filled the Athenaeum stage, to the delight of the very attentive audience. Perhaps in some ways they were too attentive. The chaotic the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party where Georgina Stone’s Mad Hatter and Mark Whitwood’s March Hare bickered to great effect, interrupted by Mark Salmond’s somnambulistic Dormouse, deserved a fuller audience response. I almost wished Zeya Phillips-Thomas’ fearsome Queen of Heart’s could have threatened the audience with her famous decapitation, instead of Millie Godfrey’s delightfully ever-worried White Rabbit and a host of other well-crafted Wonderland characters.

When you consider the amount of work that must have gone into the preparation of this production, and the tremendous commitment of the actors and back-stage teams, it is a pity that it can only be seen four times at the Ath, with evening performances on Friday and Saturday, and a Saturday matinee, too.

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