Is there a moment when we grow up, a moment when we leave our childhood behind and become an adult? Do we ever really leave our childhood behind? Do we embrace the past as being part of our present and future or do we try to hide from it through being unable to truly discard it?
In Peter and Alice, John Logan has imagined the conversation that may have taken place when Peter Llewelyn Davies (Ben Whishaw) met Alice Liddell Hargreaves (Judi Dench) at a Lewis Carroll exhibition in 1932. The play explores how these two people have lived, loved, accepted or rejected the renown that accompanied their link to a beloved childhood character. Alice Liddell, by now an old lady, found a comfort in the character Alice in Wonderland, a safe place of summer picnics and boats on the Isis. Llewelyn Davies in contrast struggled much more with his association with JM Barrie and Peter Pan and was less able to successfully cope with the notoriety that Peter Pan had brought him.
The play opens in a brown, musty store room and this is where Peter and Alice first meet. As they settle into conversation about their memories and begin to travel back into their childhoods we are transported into a Tenniel inspired, panto like ‘wonderland’. Some of the innermost thoughts and fears of the pair are voiced through the appearances of an exuberant Peter Pan (Olly Alexander) and the most perfect Alice in Wonderland (Ruby Bentall). Please indulge me while I enthuse for a moment - when young Alice first appeared, as if from a rabbit hole, I almost squealed with delight, she looked perfect. Every inch the Tenniel Alice I grew up with, her dress, her hair even the way she stood, she was my Alice and I loved her for it.
Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw were everything I’d hoped for and more. Dench is a delight to watch, her warmth and sparkle reached the back of the stalls with, it seemed, so little effort. Whishaw, however, quietly and almost imperceptibly, stole my heart and the underplayed tragedy of his character was so utterly moving that I will confess to a tear.
Ultimately, this play charmed and delighted me and I would recommend you try and see it.
