Christopher Wheeldon:
”Alice”
The Royal Danish Ballet
December 3 & 4 2016
The Royal Theatre
The Old Stage
By choosing Christopher Wheeldon’s adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland” as this – and probably – several upcoming seasons’ family Christmas experience, Nikolaj Hübbe has gained an innovative production with outstanding design values that really display the quality of the famed costume and technical departments of the RDB.
The production also caters for the Danish tradition for character dancing and even the tiniest hedgehog delivers a top-notch performance.
However, the adaptation fails on some of the most important elements. Wheeldon’s insistence on making an “Alice” that instead of focusing on the core material also delivers every trim of a traditional romantic ballet and follow the unwritten rule that everything in a fantasy must be rooted in reality. By not daring to defy the conventions, this “Alice” stops short of being the masterpiece it could have been.
When “Alice” was hip
My younger years as a literature student coincided with a new wave for “Alice in Wonderland”, when the hippie generation found out that this Victorian classic broke every rule in the book on how to write a novel and how to let fantasy loose. The academics found a vessel for every theory possible and poor Lewis Carroll or Charles Dodgson, who is the person behind the pen name, was considered everything from a drug addict to a pedophile. Alice herself became the key figure in the wonderful movie “Dreamchild” that played in Copenhagen for more than a decade.
Christopher Wheeldon does not follow any of these often half-baked theories. He is on a completely different mission. While he and the designer Bob Crawley create magic in their solutions for Alice’s transformations, he stay on the tried and narrow road on how to create a family ballet.
Like many productions of “The Nutcracker”, including the one Flemming Flindt created for the RDB many years ago and which became the house production for many years, everything that happens in act two must be tied to a toy or event in act one. Following the pattern so strictly, Wheeldon short sells the core value of “Alice in Wonderland”, the power of pure fantasy.
Following a Manual
To illustrate the second big mistake, I will have to discuss a ballet that did not happen. Many years ago, Frank Andersen, the then artistic director at RDB, commissioned a ballet from Heinz Sporli, based on a lesser known Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. That ballet never happened. The costumes were ready a score by Danish sing a song-writer Sebastian was recorded. However, Sporli bowed out.
It is my own theory that part of the problem was the lack of prober pas de deux material in the fairy tale.
This is exactly the same problem “Alice” faced. To deliver all the trims of a traditional ballet, Wheeldon creates a romance between Alice and Jack, the garden assistant who turns into the Knave of Hearts.
Wheeldon puts in a number of pas de deux's, that even, when danced by the RDB top romantic couple, Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas, investing all their skills and considerable charms, cannot create magic. The primary reason is that there is no real nor narrative base for it.
He has also choreographed a massive flower divertissement that goes on and on, without bringing anything valuable to the performance.
Maybe the decision to include these traditional items were suggested to make the ballet appeal more to the traditional British audience and to give male stars and corps the ballet more to chew on. However, “Alice” even without the interpolations are a very rich dish that stands well on its core values.
Coming to Copenhagen
When watching the Royal Ballet version on video, it was easy to see the appeal for an RDB production. However a few questions were still standing. How well would the story come across in a country where “Alice in Wonderland is somewhat known, but definitely not known well by the majority?
The DVD production made clear that many characters were created to wear heavy costumes and makeup. Could the dramatically strong RDB company and stars get their acting skills working through the makeup barrier? The answer is a resounding yes.
Among the two first casts, Alban Lendorf, who shares his career between RDB and ABT managed to break through the looking glass and present an authoritative White Rabbit.
As the Mad Hatter, Gregory Dean managed to ad more than step dancing to the role. His counterpart in the first cast, Charles Andersen focused more on the dancing.
However, he had sublime support from the two outstanding dramatic dancers Jon Axel Fransson and Tobias Praetorius as March Hare and Dormouse. In all the supporting casts created strong characters and broke through the barriers of makeup and wigs.
The first cast combined a fine human Marcin Kupinski as the Lewis Carroll/White Hare character with Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas as Alice and Jack. The duo has really created a strong position for themselves in a series of ballet’s young romantic couples and adding Alice and Jack was no problem at all. Both managed to build a full dose of charm and character as well as some very fine dancing, even though a lot of the choreography are rather repetitive.
In the British original version, Alice in sporting a dark page coiffure and that has been set as the norm of the role, so the blond Ida Praetorius and Caroline Baldwin in second cast uses dark wigs. I know it is a trend to define specific traits for a production, but I would like both girls to keep their usual coloring. Dramatically Ida Praetorius is the softer, romantic girl, whereas Baldwin is going for a pluckier and more defiant character. Her more mature partner Ulrik Birkkjær managed to create a believable working class youth and wisely left the dreamboat to Andreas Kaas.
Cut their head off
When first cast Kizzy Matiakis presented the double role of mean homemaker and mother and the hysterical Red Queen, it looked like a home run. Matiakis ticked all the boxes and scored a personal triumph in the role that Christopher Wheeldon has given his best and funniest material.
However, when young Astrid Elbo entered the stage with the second cast, it became clear that there was more ways to kill the bird. Elbo’s portrait of the mother was calmer, more controlled and yet as deadly as needed.
In the red queen’s spoof on the Rose Adagio, Elbo continued to mix the presentation of good with the reality of evil. It gave an extra dimension and it showcase how great and original talent, Elbo possesses. Hopefully more and as meaty castings should come her way.
A Collective Triumph
In all the RDB shows their strength, their ability to create original touching and funny characters. I could have wished that Wheeldon had gone all in on the original material and had cared less about following the standard manual on what a ballet must contain.
That could have made “Alice” a true masterpiece. As it is, it is a very well-crafted work, which will have a long life. There is enough quality in the ballet for it to join RDB’s catalogue of family oriented ballets.
Photos by Costin Radu (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
- Ida Praetorius as Alice with Morten Eggert as The Red King, Kizzy Matiakis as the Queen and Marcin Kupinski as the White Rabbit
- Ida Praetorius & Andreas Kaas as Alice & Jack
- Ida Praetorius as Alice with Tobias Praetorius as Dormouse, Jon Axel Fransson as March Hare and Charles Andersen as the Mad Hatter
- Kizzy Matiakis as the Red Queen
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