wonder.land review

Wonder.land - National Theatre

I am a big fan of Alice in Wonderland story. But I have to say of the many versions that I have seen, this play is most disappointing. It starts with a young girl not wanting to go to school due to her classmates bullying, and started to play the video game wonder.land and submerged in that world.

There was a gauze in the middle of the stage, and there were projections in front, where her avatar alice is suspended and spot light on. That seems to work a little bit, but it went on too long. I could see that there are a lot of projections done, and it must have been time consuming, but as I was upstairs in my seating, I can't really see it, and even when I saw what was going on, it makes no sense whatsoever. That was also rather redundant.

Trying to incorporating the bullying issue to the play might seem like a good idea, but whenever the scene changes back to Alice reality, it is extremely boring. The characters have not really any personality, and seems blah. The squirting of the paper's vomit or pee seems like a bad joke. The only singing and have any interest to me is the guy who is doing the background voice over. He has a wonderful voice with various tones, and I was mermerzed whenever he sang. His caterpillar costume is also the best of the whole play. Unfortunately the director did not put more of him. The rest of the play is extremely blah, and jokes were not funny, songs are mediocre. Even the so-called interactive art disappoint me. Not to sound arrogant, I could have design a better setting. I guess the only thing I think is ok is probably the costume design, but that didn't save the show however.

This is set in the main National Theatre building, which is my first time in this building. Nice well layout building with good seating and sound inside the theatre, too bad the play wasn't good this time.

February 2016