Cir­ca’s panto this year is Alice in Won­der­land, and it is a mys­tic­al jour­ney down the rab­bit hole (Mt Vic tun­nel), to dis­cov­er fun, some qual­ity Kiwi bangers, and utter man­i­cism (in a good way).

Writ­ten by Circa stal­warts, Gav­in Ruther­ford and Simon Leary (who play the Dame and the Mad Hat­ter respect­ively), it’s a tale as old as time – Alice fol­lows the White Rab­bit through to Won­der­land, where the Red Queen – a thinly-veiled Jacinda Ardern – has been turned evil by her new pet, the Jab­ba­wocky (no bets as to which loc­al polit­ic­al fig­ure that’s meant to be).

Togeth­er, the Dame, Alice, the Hat­ter and the White Rab­bit – along­side a reluct­ant Tweedle­dum and Tweedledee – must save them­selves and stop the Jab­ba­wocky before the Red Queen cuts off all their heads.

Cir­ca’s pan­tos are always very well done, and a great time for the whole fam­ily, and Alice is no excep­tion.

The per­form­ances are very strong – Jonath­an Mor­gan bring­ing some strong vogue­ing in as the Red Queen being one of my high­lights – and the music­al num­bers are just fant­ast­ic.

This year, all the music­al moments are Kiwi songs, and the cast revital­ize a mix­ture of old clas­sic Kiwi bangers, as well as some new­er hits. I very much appre­ci­ated the inclu­sion of Opshop’s Maybe as one of the through­lines of the show, as well as Th’ Dudes’ Bliss.

Pan­to­mimes are fun for the whole fam­ily, and this one is no excep­tion. Though there are moments that are a little sau­ci­er, and some jokes about polit­ics, any kids in the audi­ence would be hard-pressed to not enjoy them­selves dur­ing such a delight­ful and fab­ulous piece. I cer­tainly did, and I was a child­less solo audi­ence mem­ber. It’s a damn good time.

Ring in the hol­i­day sea­son with this bit of fun. You abso­lutely won’t regret it.

 

Alice in Won­der­land is on at Circa Theatre in Wel­ling­ton until the 22nd of Decem­ber. Grab your tick­ets here!