Alice in Funderland was our latest escapade into the bright lights of Dublin City. I had heard absolutely nothing about the show, which i like, to be honest. Then i have no preconceptions wandering around my head telling me that they "promise" not to pop up and prejudge whatever it is i am about to see. Lying b*stards!
We booked the tickets that evening. I say "we." My mate was supposed to book them the day before but in reality booked them on the car journey in, thus getting us 2 glorious seats, one behind the other in the back corner of the theatre! Thankfully The Abbey is quite forgiving, in that, wherever you sit you still have a relatively good view.
The show starts. It's a musical. But it doesn't open with a song. And even when the first song appears, it's not a 'show tune.' I like it already. In actual fact, i like it before i even hear the first note of a song. The opening scene is brilliant! The dialogue zips along in a very familiar conversational way that i would think everyone in the theatre can relate to at some level. Siblings arguing! And there are some killer one liners...serious killer one liners! A tone is set and i'm pretty happy with the sound of it!
Look, I'm not going to go into any in depth analysis of the various themes the show may or may not have. Or use words that will need you to pop up to your Google search box and type in to find the meaning of. I'm no good at that type of thing. Hence why i'm writing a blog and not a review for The Times (which incidentally gave it a great review that included some words i didn't entirely understand but did get the jist of).
The basis of the story is: Alice goes to Dublin for her sisters Hen night, gets split up from the gang of girls she's with, meets a boy in a club who she wares the face off before he disappears home to Hartstown. Sounds normal enough, doesn't it? But this ain't Dublin as we know it. The show proceeds to dish out outrageous character after outrageous character on a seemingly never ending conveyor belt of mentalness! Alice is in a surreal world of witt and utter bizzareness that for, the first hour and twenty minutes, has you strapped in and screaming don't stop! But it does stop. For 15 minutes while you have the choice of a drink, smoke or toilet break...or maybe all three if you can fit them in. Due to queueing, i could only fit in the latter. Mind you, it was nothing in camparison to the queue for the Ladies. I'd say there are still some girls waiting to 'powder their nose', such was length! I love been a bloke!The second act is that bit slower. And intentionally so, as i found out from talking to some of the cast afterwards. I do think that it loses something, though. Purely because Act 1 is so fantastic. Maybe i was expecting too much from Act 2. But why wouldn't i want more considering what preceeded it?! I don't feel hard done by, though. But i do feel we could get to the courtroom scene a bit sooner and maybe lose a song. But hey, that's the beauty of Theatre isn't it? We can all see the same thing, yet have a thousand different opinions!
The great thing about Alice in Funderland is the cast have that buzz about them that infects the audience and leaves us in no doubt they worked their asses off for the last 6 weeks to get this show in shape - and evidently love every minute of it! As my mate put it, and i too fell prey to this illeness - he was suffering from Actor Envy!
For me this show has to be seen. And be seen by many. It deserved it's full house. And hopefully the fullness will continue over the run.
Book here: http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats_on/event/alice_in_funderland/
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