one4review | On 27, Aug 2023

We may all be mad here, but in Early Doors Productions’ homage to Alice Through the Looking Glass, we’re also warm, human and humane. Four actors make up the company (but I would also entirely believe there were more), playing a multitude of characters. Only Alice doesn’t change, and this character gives the show it’s anchor, a grounded centre around which everything else spins.

She also embodies the approach to the piece’s portrayal of mental ill-health and neurodivergance: the characters are people first, and they command the same respect and humanity as anyone does. None of them are presented as figures of fun, and they’re played with sympathy and warmth and as people. The acting is superb; actors switching between roles with the simple change of a hat but also in something more complex which means each character’s much more than a caricature.

This is a story that’s shown rather than told, and nothing is extraneous in this tightly-written production. Everything is there because it has a job to do, and everything does its job extremely well. As a result, there’s a lot left to our understanding and interpretation, and that means there’s something there for everyone.

Reviewed by Laura

Greenside @ Infirmary Street
21:45 (50mins)
Until 26th