“We are falling down the most extraordinary rabbit hole,” writer James Kenworth and director James Martin Charlton tell us about bringing East End Wonderland adaptation, Alice in Canning Town. to a Newham playground. Read the interview then book your tickets.
The new adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland runs in a site-specific production at the Arc in the Park Adventure Playground from 12 to 18 August 2019.
When Alice follows a rabbit one day, she finds herself in an unusual, magical world filled with extraordinary characters. But this Wonderland has been reconfigured for today’s East End. All the favourite characters are still there, but in new, modern guises. A cockney rabbit, a rave-mad Mad Hatter, a hookah-smoking ex-Bollywood actor, Tweedledee and Tweedledum as hipsters, and a would-be grime artist called MC Turtle.
From Cockney to Bangra, from the Krays to Stormzy, Alice in Canning Town is a celebration of not only one of the best loved fantasies of all time, but a kaleidoscopic and action-packed journey through an East End that survived Hitler’s blitz and reinvented itself as a leading light in multicultural Britain.
Written by James Kenworth and directed by James Martin Charlton, Alice in Canning Town will feature children from local Newham primary and secondary schools performing alongside professional actors. Kenworth and Charlton previously worked together on a site specific adaptation of Animal Farm, renamed Revolution Farm, that was staged a Newham City Farm in 2014, and on A Splotch of Red: Keir Hardie in West Ham, which toured East London in 2016.
James Kenworth and James Martin Charlton on Alice in Canning Town
What inspired you to adapt Alice in Wonderland for an East End setting?
Kenworth: The original impetus for my new version was always rooted in how truly multicultural and integrated I think the East End generally is. Strange at it might sound, this tolerance and openness reminds me of crusty old raves/squat parties I used to go to in deserted warehouses, old Mecca bingo halls and derelict cinemas, where the distinguishing feature was the amazing array of sound systems under one roof. Which meant, of course, you could take your pick from any number of music styles: happy house, hard house, drum n bass, jungle, chill, techno, indie, roots reggae.
I used to love that, going from room to room in an enormous old building and experiencing a completely different vibe/atmosphere because of the style of beats/music. It felt like all of human life was there, and unity and solidarity was the consistent theme running through all of the night (and into the next week or however long the squat party lasted!).
Mods
The East End has offered up some phenomenal modern cultural movements in the last few decades; mods, rave, bangra, hipsters, grime, and I wanted to capture some of this eclecticism and open spirit in my new version of Alice, as well as celebrating the humour and vibrancy of traditional East End culture.
When did you first come across the story and why did it stay with you?
Kenworth: I’m sure I read Alice as a child, but I haven’t come back to it until now, with this new stage version. And if I’m being perfectly honest, rather than the book staying with me, it seemed the perfect choice for Arc in the Park, a rather bizarre and surreal adventure playground with creative staging opportunities that Peter Brook would kill for!
Why do you think the story has such longevity?
Kenworth: Its characters. That’s the reason. They’re unique, eccentric, unforgettable. Plus it appeals to adults and children alike. And that’s a very hard trick to pull off. It’s difficult to know exactly what it all means, (which probably defeats the purpose anyway) and of course there’s all manner of interpretations, and each generation avidly invents its own meanings. The swinging sixties reinvented Alice as a psychedelic masterpiece. The movie The Matrix very clearly references Alice in Wonderland and gave Neo (The One) his own version of Alice’s choice of ‘pill’. I think Alice in Wonderland would probably survive a nuclear war, along with cockroaches and Keith Richards.
What opportunities did the new setting give you and how does it illuminate aspects of the story?
Charlton: Arc in the Park is a fantastic location for a site specific production. Ambition Aspire Achieve have created a great space for children to play in – full of three dimensional opportunities for adventure, excitement and fun. As theatremakers, these are precisely opportunities that we can exploit. If the rabbit needs to disappear, they can do so down a slide. If Ms Hatter and her friends need to freak Alice out, they can swing her between them. If we need somewhere for our hipster Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to live, why not on the play-boat which lies moored on the grass of the Arc? The Arc gives us, Alice and the audience a Wonderland to explore.
As this is a promenade production, we follow Alice on our journey and her encounters in Wonderland are mirrored by each audience member’s personal encounters with this wild space, the Arc. The Arc is a site where children play, learn and socialise – precisely the things Alice does on her adventures. So the Arc tells us that Alice shows a universal story of a child exploring, being educated and finding out about others.
What challenges does staging it in a playground add to the process?
Arc in the Park
Charlton: This is a very unusual theatre space. Each scene is performed in a different area of the park. So each scene has its own unique staging challenges – some scenes have the audience facing them, some have the audience around them, some have the audience looking up or looking down. So the performers have to create a new audience relationship in each scene. Then we have to get the audience from scene to scene, which is always a trick to pull off with promenade. But the bonus is that we are falling down the most extraordinary rabbit hole, and the audience getting used to each new staging convention mirrors Alice getting used to the new colourful character she is meeting. The space turns each audience member into Alice!
Why did you choose to make each performance Pay What You Can?
Kenworth: Newham has a track record of making cultural activities for residents affordable and accessible and since our show features local young people in the cast, it wouldn’t be right to charge prices that might make people stay away.
You’ve staged a number of East End specific productions now, what’s the appeal?
Kenworth: For several years now, I’ve been making theatre in Newham, which I describe as Localist Public Environment Theatre, i.e. the use of public environment as alternative auditoria and ‘mixed economy’ participation to create new writing which originates from, and is rooted in, a community’s history, culture and people.
When Chaplin Met Gandhi was staged in Kingsley Hall, Bow where Gandhi lived and stayed for three months; Revolution Farm was a contemporary update of Orwell’s Animal Farm at Newham City Farm; A Splotch of Red: Keir Hardie in West Ham, a play about the founder of The Labour, was performed in Neighbours Hall at Community Links, where Hardie spoke at one of his many election rallies in Newham. These plays do three things, essentially: they reawaken and make relevant for today East London’s rich history/heritage; they promote public spaces/buildings as alternative to mainstream theatre auditoria; and they encourage and widen access to the arts by a ‘mixed economy’ casting, i.e. all our shows feature local young people acting alongside professional actors.
What can audiences expect from the Alice in Canning Town?
Charlton: They can certainly expect to see Alice as they’ve never seen it before. They can expect to discover that an area of London not known for its arts and culture has enormous potential, both in terms of its spaces and the brilliant young performers that have grown up in Newham. They can expect humour, weirdness, wild characters and an opportunity to explore a space usually put aside for kids. All in all, it’s a great time out in east London in summer.
