"Cor blimey, Alice in Wonderland as youve never seen it before!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. Alice in Canning Town is a kaleidoscopic journey through an East End that survived Hitlers blitz and reinvented itself as a leading light in multicultural Britain.Alice falls down an East End rabbit hole... and finds herself invited to lots of parties. The trouble is the totalitarian Ministry of Fun decrees there can only be one party and everyone disagrees what kind it should be. Alice has to try to bring the warring tribes of the Underground together and defy the mighty Ministry and fight for their right to party together.Reconfigured specially for the East End, and performed site-responsively in Canning Town's Arc in the Park, an inclusive adventure playground in Canning Town, it's the fourth in a quartet written by James Kenworth that explores the borough's rich heritage and shows off the talent of its young people.
James is a Playwright and Academic. His plays includes verseprose plays Johnny Song (Warehouse Theatre, Croydon); Gob (Kings Head, Pleasance, Courtyard); the black comedy Polar Bears (Underbelly); issue-led / based plays Everybodys World (Newham tour), Dementias Journey (East London tour); plays for young people/schools, The Last Story in the World (Soho Theatre); and a Newham-based quadtrilogy of site-specific / responsive plays: When Chaplin Met Gandhi (Kingsley Hall); Revolution Farm (Newham City Farm); A Splotch of Red: Keir Hardie in West Ham (Community Links and Newham Libraries); and Alice in Canning Town (Arc in the Park). Gob starred former Take That star, Jason Orange, and was Time Out and Whats On Critics Choice at Kings Head Theatre, Islington. Its revival at Edinburgh Fringe Festival earned the distinction of two five-star reviews from Three Weeks and The List, and was included in the feature "Editor's Highlights of the Fringe".
"A terrifically powerful update... Highly recommended"
The Independent on Revolution Farm
"An absorbing and passionate play about an absorbing and passionate man."
LondonTheatre1.com on A Splotch of Red
