Alice in Wonderland

English National Ballet

Palace Theatre TCHAIKOVSKY wrote such wonderful ballet music for classic fairy tales - Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker - that one wonders why he didn't try his hand at Alice in Wonderland.

Too English perhaps, but that hasn't stopped composer Carl Davis (he wrote the music to BBC's Pride and Prejudice) from using some of the Russian composer's music to turn Lewis Carroll's classic story into a fun children's ballet.

It starts off slowly as Alice is transported, dreamlike, into Wonderland, but some special effects - flying pocket watches and playing cards - get the action under way.

What follows in Derek Deane's production is a mixture of knockabout comedy and classic choreography that suits the grotesque characters (the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, etc) and the corps de ballet and pas de deux situations of the Queen of Hearts' entourage.

There are some fine set pieces, especially the Mad Hatter's tea party and the lobster quadrille, and some good dancing from this distinguished company, especially Alice (Alice Crawford), the Knave of Hearts (Thomas Edur) and the Queen (Lisa Pavane).

Alice may not yet be a ballet classic but, judging by last night's full house, it could certainly become a favourite. It runs all week, ending on Saturday night, while all next week the company offers us some real Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker.

JOHN GRIFFITHS

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.