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Site-responsive and immersive theatre-makers Creation Theatre and Big Telly Theatre Company present an innovative and fresh take on Lewis Carrolls’ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Teaming up with Charisma.ai, ground-breakers in interactive and immersive storytelling technology, this digitally advanced production, blends live acting and the latest in AI and online video techniques.

Audiences will be invited to dive down the rabbit hole to experience a magical theatrical experience, meeting their favourite characters from this much-loved classic along the way. While venues remain in lockdown in the UK, the show bridges the worlds of theatre, art and technology and reunites the successful creative team behind The Tempest Live. Alice will be performed live each time across four weeks.

Director Zoe Seaton comments: “We wanted to be wildly ambitious and imaginative with this show and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is really freeing as a story. It’s so playful and already so surreal, mixing reality with illusion, a perfect combination for digital. The idea of setting the play in a theme park is also an ingenious, unconventional way to unlocking Alice’s adventures with the audience, and plays upon the skill of the actors, storytelling and drama.”

The creative team also includes playwright Charlotte Keatley, best known for her award-winning play My Mother Said I Never Should, described as one of the significant plays of the 20th century. Keatley has been part of the devising process and has guest written a scene from the Mad Hatter’s tea party. The set and costumes have been designed by Ryan Dawson Laight (CHICHESTER THEATRE FESTIVAL, GARY CLARKE COMPANY, DENADA DANCE THEATRE, V&A).

The production features a seven strong cast and includes Leda Douglas as Alice (SOHO THEATRE); Vera Chok as the Queen of Hearts (NATIONAL THEATRE, ALMEIDA, REGENTS PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE); Dharmesh Patel as The Mad Hatter (RSC, SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE); Colm Gormley as the March Hare (RSC, SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE, ROYAL COURT, ROYAL & DERNGATE); Tom Richardson as Tweedle Dee/Dum (NEW VIC THEATRE, WATFORD PALACE THEATRE), Annabelle Terry as the Doormouse/Cook (CREATION THEATRE’s The Tempest Live) and Nicky Harley as the White Rabbit (GAME OF THRONES, HBO).

Charisma.ai, whose work on ground-breaking creative technology includes creating narrative gaming experiences for Sky, BBC and other networks, are incorporating their artificial intelligence platform and trailblazing online video techniques to bring a new level of immersion to the Zoom platform.

Founder Guy Gadney said: “The past few months have seen digital platforms emerge as storytelling media in their own right. This production of Alice interweaves real-life and virtual environments to make a brilliantly immersive and playful version of Carroll’s magical story. This combination of theatre and technology presents a new and exciting opportunity for Charisma.ai, building off our previous experience in television and publishing to help bring to life a new form of theatre.”

Background – Theatre in Lockdown

When lockdown happened, site-responsive and immersive theatre specialists Creation Theatre teamed up with Zoe Seaton’s Big Telly Theatre Company, and quickly moved its thinking to how live theatre could operate online. The Tempest Live, Interactive and In Your Living Room, was one of the first productions made for the digital stage utilising Zoom at the beginning of April 2020. The 20 live performances were watched by audiences in over 15 countries. Alice, reunites the successful creative team behind the critically-acclaimed and global hit production.

Creative Team

Director and adaptor: Zoe Seaton

Co-producer: Guy Gadney: Charisma.ai

Set and Costume Designer: Ryan Dawson Laight

Charlotte Keatley, guest writer – The Mad Hatter scene

Paul McEneaney – Illusionist

Stage Manager: Sinead Owens

Cast

Leda Douglas – Alice

Vera Chok – Queen of Hearts

Colm Gormley – March Hare

Dharmesh Patel – The Mad Hatter