Last evening we had a somewhat surreal experience: we ventured out to a slightly unusual theatre: a performance of “Alice” at Little Angel Theatre in Islington.

Little Angel is the home of possibly this country’s première puppet theatre. And it is certainly a different experience. The theatre is tiny, with the auditorium seating only about 90 adults on church pew style benches. The stage is equally minuscule.

“Alice”, one of Little Angel’s current productions, is a puppet musical loosely based on Alice in Wonderland. I use “loosely” in the loosest sense of the word – “imaginative” is the word Little Angel use to describe it! Yes, it was certainly different and rather fun, if not entirely to my taste.

The puppets were brilliant (Alice, the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat especially), as were the four puppeteers. It was certainly an extremely clever production with many amusing little touches. The Cheshire Cat was excellently played with a Cheshire accent and much purring and chirruping; the White Rabbit was suitably and visibly terrified. But northern accents on the Mad Hatter and the March Hare didn’t work for me. The other thing which didn’t work for me was the musical element; the songs were cleverly written but often too detached from the real Alice story – although such is the way of the musical. And, especially towards the end, some of the production was a bit shouty for such a small space. After 1¾ hours (with an interval) the puppeteers must have been exhausted; it was non-stop and all four were on stage most of the time.

Here’s a YouTube video trailer for the production:

Despite the reservations, we’re glad we went. It was certainly different and as a long-time fan of Lewis Carroll it was well worth seeing. Little Angel only rarely do evening performances, which is a shame, choosing to concentrate more on daytime shows when children and schools can attend but most adults can’t. Consequently their productions tend to be more orientated towards children. “Alice” would be excellent for any child over the age of about five – it was in a way a bit like children’s TV – although it is by no means inaccessible to adults.

If you like the Lewis Carroll books, “Alice” is certainly worth seeing. And if you like excellent puppetry Little Angel Theatre run productions through most of the year usually with two shows running in parallel for 2-3 months before the repertoire changes. They also have touring shows, so you may find them popping up in the provinces.

“Alice” runs until 30 January.