By BRUCE DENNILL
Janice Honeyman’s Alice In Wonderland / Directed by Janice Honeyman / Mandela, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Joburg Theatre’s grand tradition of year-end pantomimes, written and helmed by Janice Honeyman, stretches toward its fourth decade with another high-tech AV extravaganza, with CGI, projection and electronic screens providing vivid support for more traditional elements (actors, live band, costumes and more). Alice In Wonderland as source material is a particularly fertile creative base, with multiple scenarios already dripping with psychedelic fantasy, so it’s not surprising that this production feels like looking into a kaleidoscope through polarised lenses while standing on the dance floor from Saturday Night Fever.
In a couple of other ways, it feels slightly less like a pantomime than preceding years, with fewer dame archetypes and a different approach to the music used. Desmond Dube returns as Dame Fanny Floppalot (subtle, that one) and works the stage and the room beautifully, in one clever instance becoming the punchline to a joke his character tells. In the other dame-type role, Brendan Van Rhyn is larger than life (which is saying something when he’s fully seven feet tall in high heels) as the Queen of Hearts, but that character is already a well-known drama, er, queen without expanding the scope for a panto context. Still, while it’s less of an inversion of the norm (guy plays girl, with the hilarity coming from how outlandish it looks), Van Rhyn’s talent for and experience in drag performance means he is almost the most obvious scene-stealer in the piece – especially when performing a tweaked version of Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer’s classic song, She.
That song is one example of the other major choice it feels has been made that somewhat changes the mood. There are a number of songs taken from contemporary playlists, but not as many as has often been the case, and not combined in extensive mash-ups to the same extent. Instead, along with instrumental TikTok dances there are fuller re-writes of, for instance, two songs from Hairspray, which steers this show a little more – interestingly – in the direction of a stage musical.
This Alice In Wonderland easily matches the visual impact of even the biggest Broadway shows with the hallucinogenic hues of everything on stage almost scorching the eyeballs in their brilliance and intensity. From the audiovisual design and lighting to the extraordinary costumes and correspondingly bright sets, the show is a genuine chromatic spectacular.
The leads are all strong on all levels (including riding one or two sound glitches in the opening performance). Ashley Scott is a commanding and confident triple threat, with a particularly notable voice; Bongi Archi makes his umpteenth energetic panto appearance as the White Rabbit and Russel Savadier brings bubbly eccentricity to Alice In Wonderland author Lewis Carroll as the narrator. Scene stealer in chief, however, is Charlie Bouguenon as the Mad Hatter, putting aside a string of award-winning dramatic roles to go full bonkers lunatic with perfect comic timing and a permanently crazed expression that would be terrifying if it wasn’t so hilariously gleeful.
The ensemble is not far behind in terms of the collective impression they make, not least because their ranks include wonderfully talented leads from other shows including the likes of Kiruna-Lind Devar and Raymond Skinner.
As ever, panto script stylings mean such things as smooth narrative flow and predictable pacing are less in evidence than in straight theatre, but the upbeat, dazzling brashness of everything on show makes up for whatever story strangeness occurs – keeping in mind that Carroll’s original was a mind-warp to begin with!