Review: Alice In Wonderland

Show is a wonder, and in many ways

Oldham Coliseum

ONE of the region’s most venerable and lauded young people’s theatre companies, Oldham Theatre Workshop, celebrates its 40th birthday this year.

It has been a sometimes wonderful, sometimes frustrating experience. These days it is sometimes the latter, but with glimpses of how it used to be.

In the glory days of founder David Johnson, OTW rose to a peak at which some of its members were among the most astonishingly talented performers of their generation, their burgeoning skills drawn out by a master of direct, disciplined performance.

In the early Nineties, under a new director, it sank to a directionless mess that for a time seemed in danger of closure.

Today, thankfully, it is back to a stable middle ground: real shows, 1,200 children on its books and 250 regular members.

And in James Atherton, it has a director who loves theatre and enjoys working with children — even though he is by no means a director to his toes.

“Alice” brings pleasures: sweet, 11-year-old Naimh Purtil is one of the youngest members of the cast, but dives into the title role with confidence.

Kassie Bowers is ultra-composed as the narrator-figure, done up like a circus ringmaster with a curiously sinister approach.

Anthony Hussen is amusing as a reggae-style caterpillar and the cast in general works hard on a good-looking but not terribly useful set.

Atherton is a terrific composer, his music tuneful and varied in style. In his wife, Sarah Nelson, he has a writer and lyricist presumably in full sympathy with his musical aims.

Which is perhaps where they go a little awry: the music is remarkably complex, given that few of the leads sing well.

The duo also has a tendency to hold the story while characters doodle on tangents about giving-in to dreams and embracing the impossible. Very Disney.

And rather than give the young cast simple dialogue and direct characters, they get quickfire dialogue, irony and whimsy that professionals would find it hard to render sensibly.

I’m all for stretching young performers, but not beyond their limits. Regardless of which, it has been a memorable four decades.