Following the light-hearted romp of director Michael Grandage’s recent Privates on Parade, the second play in his theatre company’s West End residency treads very different ground.
It concerns the true story of the chance encounter, in a bookshop in 1932, between the real life Alice in Wonderland and the real life Peter Pan.
John Logan’s troubling new play confronts the disturbing reality of Lewis Carroll and JM Barrie’s absorption with their respective childhood stories, concealing sexual repression lurking in the shadows of their creativity.
Fresh from penning the screenplay to James Bond hit ‘Skyfall’, (and lined up to write the next two 007 films too), Logan is reunited here with the movie’s very own M and Q – Judy Dench and Ben Whishaw – in what can only be described as box office gold.
The two actors’ interplay between the childhood and adult aspects of their respective characters shows skill and emotional integrity, revealing, most movingly, the deep pain both experienced in their ‘grown up’ lives.
The young Peter and Alice are used to connect past with present, at times exchanging lines from each other’s famous stories, such as Alice portraying Wendy. Yet as a dramatic device it proves hard work, and without a solid knowledge of both books there’s a strong possibility of the audience becoming lost down the rabbit hole themselves.
As dark hidden desires and personal tragedies emerge this complex piece grows even tougher. Sensitively directed by Grandage, with Christopher Oram’s picture book sets and costumes offsetting the emotional tone of misery and disappointment in both lives, it evokes a nightmarish psychology beneath the fantasy worlds Carroll and Barrie crafted.
And perhaps this is where the biggest problem lies, with our memories of the light-hearted and optimistic characters of Alice and Peter being unravelled and the message that, far from youth being eternal, we are doomed by our ageing.
Logan recently said he wanted the play to pose the questions: “What is it to grow up? What do you gain, what do you lose? Is there a moment when you can say to yourself ‘I am no longer a child’?”
The two great authors’ individual obsession with Peter and Alice and what they represent as fresh youths, basking in boundary-free fantasy, is duly ironic in their resulting adult tragedies.
Words: Clare Davidson
Clare Davidson is a leading voice coach and theatre director.
