Jo Turbitt offers her verdict on Ashley Page's latest (and perhaps last) production with Scottish Ballet.
If there is one thing which I adore, it's storytelling. Being a daughter of a puppeteer, as a child I was surrounded by stories, by theatre and by inventiveness in storytelling. If asked who my idols are, amongst the names of great dancers and choreographers I would also add Jim Henson and Walt Disney: amazing storytellers who crafted a story, immersed you in fantastic worlds and characters and carried you along with them. There have been some amazing ballet choreographers who have achieved the same through movement: Marius Petipa, Fokine, MacMillan and many more who have taken stories and retold them in their own way, sweeping the audience in the majesty of dance storytelling.
A great story will always evolve into a great production, right? Well, not always.
The story of Alice in Wonderland is a rich tapestry of imagination, of weird ideas and surrealism. The worlds we are drawn into ooze vibrancy and quirkiness, the characters teeter on the edge of endearing maniacs and the inventive word play leads you on in an escapist dream. Sadly and disappointingly, these qualities, along with the storytelling genius of Lewis Carroll, did not transfer into or manifest within Alice.
The show starts calmly, continues on the same dynamic and ends on the same note. The dancers are technically incredible. However, for the majority of the show the choreography and the overly minimalist score overpowered them; there was a distinct lack of feeling, honesty, dynamic and connection. The March Hare, Victor Zarallo, was a welcome breath of fresh air, bringing dynamic and life to his movement, which was closely followed by Tama Barry as the Mad Hatter. However, the artistic choices made for the Cheshire Cat left me feeling cheated out of spending time with one of my favourite characters from the stories. The Cheshire Cat has so much theatrical potential, so much so that you can truly let your imagination run riot on it and you'll still have more exploring to do. Page and his team played it safe to the extent that the Cat was dull.
The glorious symbiosis that exists in dance between choreography, music and design didn't exist. Page commented that working with narrative full-length ballets often proves tricky, and the collaboration of creative minds on this production is evidence that not everyone manages to get it right. The design by Anthony McDonald was gorgeous; bursts of colour within the costume and set peppered the minimalist design with a luscious depth. The use of video projection, which echoed a Pythonesque style, provided an animated backdrop, but this was never referred to or looked at within the action.
While Page states that the book is full of "so-called nonsense within the stories which often poke fun at the adult world" - this for me being the essence of Alice and the stories - this more than anything was lacking from the direction of the production and the references to the storytelling within the choreography. The music and choreography was where there was a void of connection; the music being extremely modern with hints of melody here and there, the choreography not really deciding between classical or contemporary. In order for the combination to blend and support each other, the movement needed to go one way or the other.
I left feeling like I wanted something very different from what I saw; I wanted more storytelling, more risks, more child-like inventiveness and imagination. In taking their own approach, Scottish Ballet have left the fantastical characters and stories behind in Wonderland, leaving us with a monotonous couple of hours.
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