REVIEW: Alice by Heart - Phoenix Ensemble

Alice by Heart

Presented by Phoenix Ensemble

Director, Set, Costume: Hayley Gervais

Musical Director and Sound: Rae Rose

Choreographer: Hannah Macri

Lighting Designer: George Pitt

Photography: By Brit Creative

"Today he is your dearest friend. Tomorrow, a statistic." 

Childhood stories are like little time capsules. We learn them before we know what grief is, before we understand war and before we realise that the world is not always going to feel like a storybook. For me, that comfort story growing up was Harry Potter. I knew the castle, the spells, the creatures, and the exact feeling of returning to that world when my own was just too much. For Alice, her escape hatch is Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from 1865. She knows it “by heart”, not just as a book, but as this magical place she can run to when reality becomes too unbearable.

Brought to you by Phoenix Ensemble, Alice by Heart takes place in an underground tube station during World War II, as Londoners shelter from Germany’s bombings. In the middle of this fear and confinement, Alice Spencer clings to the story she knows off by heart and to her best friend, Alfred, as tuberculosis and war close in around them. As she recites the story, the people in the shelter morph into Wonderland characters, and the line between memory, fantasy, and reality blurs.

Directed by Hayley Gervais, who also designed the set and costumes, this production has a lovely sense of visual invention. Hayley creates a versatile world that can shift in a blink, with hidden nooks, levels, and objects that seem to appear and disappear as Alice’s mind reshapes the space around her. The hand-painted Wonderland backdrop adds a storybook quality, placing us somewhere between a childhood illustration and a half-remembered adventure

Madeleine Ford is part of the production’s central casting, with Jade Jose stepping in as the alternate Alice at the performance I attended and she was stunning. Alice is an enormous role in any configuration, requiring innocence, vocal stamina, imagination, and constant emotional engagement. This production clearly understands Alice as the beating heart of its strange, splintered world. Jade's soft English accent fit the role beautifully, with a vibrato that seemed to shimmer through the room. She gave Alice a delicate desperation, like someone fighting to hold the pages together even as the world tears them apart. In the quieter moments, she exhibited beautiful control and then transitioned into a thrilling belt for I’ve Shrunk Enough.

Kaitlin Evans plays Alfred/White Rabbit, bringing a frantic, sweet, anxious energy to both roles. Their White Rabbit is an absolute cutie, full of urgency and nervous charm, while their Alfred carries a delicate fragility. The line “I have so little time” sits at the emotional centre of the production, and Kaitlin gives it a painful simplicity throughout. Jade and Kaitlin sound incredible together, particularly in Afternoon and their duet Still, which is one of the most tender musical highlights of the show. It has that suspended quality of two people trying to preserve one perfect memory while time keeps ticking anyway.

I have to say, I didn’t feel the emotional connection between Alice and Alfred as strongly as I wanted to. Their vocal blend was lovely, but the relationship didn’t quite reach the aching intensity the story needs. In a musical so dependent on the terror of losing that one special person, that bond should feel almost unbearable. I’m not sure if that came down to chemistry, the writing, or simply my own read of the performance, but for me, it kept the emotional core at a slight distance. I overheard a few people nearby assuming they were brother and sister, and I can understand how that reading might happen. The emotional impact of the show relies on their bond, so the more evident their love, history, and co-dependence are, the more devastating the ending can be.

Ella Maree is a divine as Tabatha/Cheshire Cat. She brings a sly, silky presence to the world, blending beautifully with Jose in Those Long Eyes. Later, Some Things Fall Away is a gorgeous showcase for her voice. Ella has that lovely quality of drawing attention without pushing for it, and there is definite star power in progress here.

Anna Ryan is hypnotic as the Caterpillar, with an intoxicating mix of voice, movement, and cockney swagger. Her work in Chillin’ the Regrets is one of the production’s top group moments. The harmonies, lighting, and choreography come together for a trippy psychedelic experience, with the full ensemble wearing arm socks like caterpillar legs to create a playful and surreal stage picture. Later on, Anna's epic vocal riff in Isn’t It a Trial? also earns one of those “oh, excuse me?” audience reactions.

Emma Erdis is fabulous as the Red Cross Nurse/Queen of Hearts, bringing command, mania, and vocal power. They portray just the right amount of danger and diva energy, especially in Isn’t It a Trial?, where the whole scene becomes a gleeful explosion of courtroom craziness. Emma shushing the band is a perfect comic beat, and their riffing sends the number flying into the heavens.

Beside them, Campbell Briggs proves wonderfully versatile across Dr Butridge, King of Hearts, Jabberwocky, and Mock Turtle. Campbell has a strong instinct for silliness, but also knows when to sharpen it into something darker. His King of Hearts dance moves just about steal the room, while his work in the Jabberwock material gives the show a heavier, more ominous energy. Brillig Braelig, with gas masks, creepy choreography, and George Pitt’s moody lighting, is a particularly effective sequence, reminding us that Wonderland’s monsters and wartime horrors are not as separate as they first seem. Side note, the Queen and King's crowns made of scissors and syringes are a brilliant design detail, marrying medical imagery with Wonderland royalty.

August Cocks brings sass, wit, and strong character detail to the Mad Hatter. Sick to Death of Alice-ness, is the strongest pieces of character work for me, with August, William Thomas as Dormouse, and Kaitlin Evans as March Hare playing with rhythm, attitude, and cockney bite as they gleefully toy with Alice. The music and lighting work tightly together here, and the number has a lively, mischievous feel with a darker undercurrent beneath it. Delilah Bennett, as Clarissa/Queen of Diamonds, adds colour and texture to the ensemble with bright character work and lifting voice.

Jack Barrett had the audience laughing so hard they were practically rolling in the aisles in the role of the Duchess. With a towering wig, hip bustles, heels that are a workout in themselves, and a flair for drama, this Duchess is a spectacle. Every “PIG!” is delivered with the gravitas of a royal decree. It’s the perfect kind of absurdity, and Jack transforms a character most of us vaguely recall from the original story into someone suddenly impossible to forget.

Ammi Johnson as Young Alice and Spencer and Fraser Goodreid as Young Alfred tug at the heartstrings in their brief appearances, reminding us that Alice and Alfred’s bond begins before the crumbling world starts asking adult things of them. Their tender presence gives the production its sense of lost innocence. “I thought we would come down here again and again” lands as one of the most painful lines in the show: the childhood belief that the people and places we love will simply keep being there.

Musically, Rae Rose does excellent work as musical director, with a band sound that is high quality throughout. Under Rae's direction the harmonies are clear, the ensemble numbers have weight, and the band supports the singers without swallowing the sound (even when the mics are being crunchy). Rae's sound design also helps bridge the war and Wonderland atmospheres.

Hannah Macri’s choreography is so inventive and full of personality. It is at its strongest when the movement feels born from the strange logic of Wonderland: the Caterpillar’s many limbs, the Jabberwock’s gas-mask menace, the ensemble surges in The Key Is, and the epic physicality of I’ve Shrunk Enough.

George Pitt’s lighting design is a major asset. The shadow work used to create Alice’s changing size is particularly effective. The lighting in Chillin’ the Regrets, Sick to Death of Alice-ness, and Brillig Braelig works exceedingly well, giving each number its own distinct texture while supporting the emotional and visual shifts of the story.

I see how director Hayley Gervais is drawing inspiration from the original production’s costume style, where characters don’t need rabbit ears or cat whiskers to tell us who they are. It keeps Wonderland feeling like something built from memory, not a literal dress-up box. There is cleverness in the way this production lets reality and fantasy bleed into one another. The world around Alice is never quite what it first appears to be. I did find myself wanting a little more visual grit from the Blitz setting. Given the historical reality of overcrowded tube shelters, illness, exhaustion, and fear, I think the hair and makeup could have leaned a touch further into wartime dreariness. Alfred, especially, could perhaps appear more physically affected by tuberculosis and his confinement in quarantine. The paleness is there, but I found myself wanting clearer visible signs of illness, perhaps through red splotches, more unkempt hair, or gaunter makeup, to help the stakes land more immediately.

It is worth saying that Alice by Heart is not a straightforward musical. Like the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, it is nonsensical, symbolic, and deliberately confusing. Some folks might find it hard to follow, and some of the symbolism may pass you by on a first watch. But that strangeness is part of its identity. What Alice remembers “by heart” is not always what is actually on the page. Trauma distorts things. Memories can get twisted.

Across two one-hour acts, Phoenix Ensemble offers a production that is highly whimsical, nostalgic, musically and choreographically strong, and full of striking individual performances. This is a show set in an era where death was common and indiscriminate, where children were not spared just because they have had less time to live. Around 43,500 civilians were killed over nine months during the Blitz, but grief remains heavy no matter how much of it surrounds you. Loss may have been everywhere, but that does not make it lighter for anyone.

“The pages turn so quickly,” the show reminds us. Alice by Heart asks us to look at Wonderland not just as a place of escape, but as a place where a young woman finally begins to understand what she cannot change. When the bombs are falling and the pages are slipping from our hands, a childhood story cannot save us. But it can sit beside us, familiar and worn, and help us breathe through the hard things, one page at a time.