Edinburgh Fringe 2025
A Mad, Mad Wonderland!
Jason Woods
Genre: New Writing, Solo Show, Theatre
Venue: Greenside @ George Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Alice meets the White Rabbit and at his encouragement returns to Wonderland. This time it is changed and upon meeting the Queen of Hearts Alice goes off on a treasure hunt looking for the music for her song.
Review
This is a solo show with a superior craftsman, meaning he is never lonely onstage! Jason Woods tells the tale of Alice in Wonderland, by using a variety of impressions to give us an extra layer to the story and characters. Woods has the ability not just to faultlessly develop characterisation but also add an additionally recognisable voice that elevates this beyond simply being a story, but also a commentary.
Classic texts can often be caught up in reverential treatment rather than being used, as they often ought to be, as a platform for taking artistry one step further. Here this may not be a radical retelling, but it is an innovative take on Wonderland. It may be a safe retelling, but it is nonetheless entertaining.
There are occasional glimpses at a risky comment or three, but it would not blush the cheeks of a maiden aunt to hear them – she would be the most likely to giggle and excuse. Woods, however, is aware not just of his audience and his demographic, but also of the material. That’s the material that Caroll wrote, and the material that Wood’s has brought onstage – the Cheshire Cat is Jack Nicholson, filled with cat puns, and one of the soldiers has Jim Carrey’s voice with an allusion made to the Grinch.
With a delightful soundscape that he himself has composed and arranged, Woods has crafted a piece of theatre that is admirable in its intention to simply entertain. There is no pretence here. Woods fills and inhabits the whole environment for us, giving us the opportunity to sit back, relax and be in the company of somebody with whom we are going to enjoy a pleasant period of time.
By the end, as we get to the last part of the story and Alice is about to return back home to the drudgery and it became time for all of us to return back to our mundane and normal days, though caught up in the carnage of the Fringe, we were released feeling the better for having spent that time with such a consummate performer. Being in the company of one man in the middle of a dark stage, lit, performing, simplistic, but never less than compelling. Woods managed to pull off fun.
