Alice: Press Reviews # 4

Theatre: 'Alice'

"All drop outs will now be processed," commands the Queen of Hearts from the controlling nexus of the computer.  This modern equivalent of "off with their heads" thought up by Anthony Phillips of Genesis fame and Richard Scott his more recent collaborator, belongs in an illusory, software world.

"Alice" just opened at the Playhouse Theatre, Leeds, sees the mistress computer programming human beings in the "now way".  Forbidden "yester way" contains all the emotions and nostalgia that inhibit mechanically perfect body and mind functions.  There is a chilly echo of certain cults with their emphasis on the present.  The story of rebellion led by Mathmagician Bruce Payne "allocatamated" with Alice, Sally Ann Triplett, takes back to the music of the recent past.

There are plenty of lively dance and song numbers in the best show-biz manner.  Andy Hampton's Butterfly Williams is a saxophone playing Caterpillar and Peter Alex Newton, as a sensuous Cat, matches lithe acrobtic movement against Michael Skyer's robotic Security.  Isabelle Lucas's self-styled "200lb of black passion" sings magnificent blues.  Her glamour vies with the elegant and seductive computer world.

"Alice", boy-meets-girl romance new style, is certainly escapist fun.  Nicholas Hytner keeps the action fluid and energetic in his first musical production.  This is also a first for Phillips and Scott.  Hopefully there will be many more.

Stella Flint, The Daily Telegraph 24-3-84

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