Last Updated on June 1, 2026

The Royal Ballet at their best in this charming adaptation of Alice in Wonderland

Autumn is upon us and if it seems a little bleak so far and you would like a reminder of a sunny summer’s afternoon, tea party included, take an evening to come to The Royal Ballet’s first production of the 2024/25 season, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is a wonderful adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s beloved Victorian novel (published in 1865) by the choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. There is much fun, humour and delicious imagery in the production, which is full of colour in the design and costumes, and full of theatrical gems and a stirring cinematic score.

The dancers were at their best, revelling in the sophisticated or light-hearted choreography and enjoying the characters they were portraying, whether it be the loveable Alice, danced beautifully on the first night by Francesca Hayward, or the tyrannical Queen of Hearts danced by Lauren Cuthbertson with elegance and humour, or all the other strange human or anthropomorphic characters – frogs, fish, playing cards, dormice, hedgehogs, etc., inhabiting the fantastical realm. The performance captured the imagination and was completely absorbing.

Christopher Wheeldon, OBE, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, created Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 2011 (it was premiered on 28th February 2011); it is an adaptation of the original story in three acts, with a scenario by Nicholas Wright. This works superbly well, illustrating how the characters in Alice’s life reappear within her experience in Wonderland. Wheeldon worked on it with the collaboration of the English composer Joby Talbot, the designer Bob Crowley and lighting designer Natasha Katz, and together they created a delightful and clever ballet, full of theatrical imagination and charm. The trio worked together again on The Winter’s Tale in 2014, performed brilliantly by The Royal Ballet last season, and Like Water for Chocolate (2022).

Act 1 begins with Alice and her two sisters in the garden of their house in Oxford in 1862 and they are being read to and shown magic tricks by Lewis Carroll (James Hay). Alice is a friend of Jack, the gardener’s boy (William Bracewell), who is falsely accused of stealing a jam tart and is dismissed. There is about to be a garden party hosted by Alice’s parents, The Liddell’s; her domineering mother, danced by Lauren Cuthbertson (who was the original Alice in 2011) and her father (Bennet Gartside). The arrival of the guests, who will all appear later in the story, was very entertaining and they all sit down to afternoon tea. Lewis Carroll cleverly transforms into The White Rabbit and leads Alice into Wonderland where she will encounter all these guests as transformed characters. A projecting screen shows the deep hole Alice falls into, full of concentric circles, letters and words, accompanied by Joby Talbot’s amazing music.

The first characters Alice meets are Jack (now The Knave of Hearts) and her psychotic mother, The Queen of Hearts, and her guards. There are difficulties for Alice to overcome, such as getting to the right size to get through the little door! Again, a very clever use of a projecting screen and helpful words could appear from the book to illustrate the story. The projection designers for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington.

There are many great scenes ensuing, particularly the swimming in the pool of her tears with a variety of animals; the caucus races; and meeting The Queen’s footman, a fish (Leo Dixon) and The Duchess’s footman, a frog (Daichi Ikarashi), who were a great duo with terrific costumes, silver or green with huge eyes on top of their heads. Then Alice finds herself at The Duchess’s house, a comedically dark place, which becomes increasingly violent and riotous, complete with a huge mixer, pig carcasses and lots of strings of sausages. The Duchess was danced by a very funny Gary Avis and The Cook with her cleaver – a crazy mesmerising performance by Kristen McNally – who later takes a fancy to the Butler / Executioner (Kevin Emerton).

The enigmatic Cheshire Cat, who appeared briefly in Act 1 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to settle things down in the Duchess’s house, appears for the second time in Act 2 and seems to lead the way and bring some peace. It is a wonderful piece of disjointed puppetry that is controlled by a group of puppeteers in black. A highlight of this Act is the amazing scene at the tea table of The Mad Hatter, danced by Steven McRae, who developed this role in 2011. It was so lovely to see his wonderful tap dancing again and to see McRae reprise this role; he has returned to the stage after a serious injury. He was joined in this terrific scene by The March Hare / Vicar (Valentino Zuchetti) and a sleepy dormouse / Verger (Sophie Allnatt). Alice (Francesca Hayward) dances a beautiful solo after this when she is all alone and lost and is wondering who she is; her dancing throughout is charming and illustrates well Alice’s sweet character, her energy, sense of fairness and feelings of loneliness and deepening love.

I loved the scene with The Caterpillar / Rajah, danced by Nicol Edmonds who was wonderful as the sensual, exotic Caterpillar. The Flower Waltz in the garden was very beautifully danced, with costumes and tutus in lovely summery shades of white with green, purple or pink. Alice is delighted to finally reach the garden and get to the party to meet The Knave, and they have a tender reunion dance with flower paintings above them.

The Queen appears in Acts 1 and 2 in her amazing red wooden ‘dress’; it is an amazing vehicle rather like a strange, maniacal toy that separates her from her people and fills them with fear. In Act 3, she descends from this vehicle, revealing her hen-pecked husband, The King of Hearts hiding in it! The Tart Adagio is one of the highlights of the ballet; The Queen shows off her dancing to the court and the choreography is very comical and clever – it is a witty parody of The Rose Adagio. Lauren Cuthbertson was excellent as the highly-strung, unpredictable, dangerous, funny Queen.

The dance of the cards in Act 3 was fabulous; the dancing was bright and amusing and the costumes very clever. The croquet game was another great scene using flamingos as mallets and hedgehogs as the balls; the flamingo puppets were lovely. In the trial scene, the Queen’s Tango showing her madness and thirst for control was very entertaining. It was funny to see the ‘put-upon’ King of Hearts disinterested in his crazy wife’s shenanigans, sitting on his throne, his head buried in a newspaper; Bennet Gartside was a great long-suffering husband. I loved all the characters reprising their roles as evidence, especially from The Mad Hatter, whose evidence is his tap dancing. The final pas deux between Alice and The Knave was beautiful and lyrical, showing a maturing of their love.

It was a lovely idea to end the ballet in the present day, with Jack and Alice back in the garden of the Oxford house, and there is a reappearance of The White Rabbit character; James Hay as Lewis Carroll / The White Rabbit was wonderful throughout.

The music of Joby Talbot is integral to the ballet; mysterious, other-worldly, strange, dramatic, romantic. The use of the orchestra, in particular violins, woodwind, percussion and the five voices was wonderful. I liked the use of musical themes for various characters, for instance for Alice or The White Rabbit, and for various situations, such as Alice’s loneliness, or Jack’s and Alice’s love.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a very enjoyable evening out at the ballet and will be a very popular production, so book tickets as quickly as you can. There will be performances of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from Saturday 28 September until Friday 1 November, with a live cinema relay on 15 October, with encore screenings from Sunday 20 October. There are four other brilliant casts to see and many company debuts, including Viola Pantuso, Ella Newton Severgnini and Meghan Grace Hinkis as Alice and William Bracewell, Cesar Corrales, Calvin Richardson and Marcelino Sambe as The Knave.