THEATRE REVIEW
2024
THE MAD
HATTER'S
TEA PARTY
★★★★
27th Aug - 7th Sept, 2024
Adapted, Produced and Directed by James Hyland
WHITE BEAR THEATRE
05 SEPT, 2024
In 2013, Dame Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw starred in John Logan’s Peter & Alice, a story about a fictional meeting between Alice Liddell Hargreaves, Alice in Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Llewelyn Davies, Peter in Peter Pan. Logan focused his play around the strange relationship that both middle-aged male authors had with young children. Verging on obsession from Lewis Carroll’s standpoint and cruel from JM Barrie Peter & Alice offered an interesting insight into these iconic children’s stories and their creators. The play also opened up something fresh in how audiences might appreciate or understand Alice, and with James Hyland’s The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, the writer/director proves there are still unique perspectives to be gained from the legendary tale.
Walking into the White Bear Theatre to Chris Warner music playing Hyland, the Mad Hatter, and Joshua J. Jewkes, Mare Hare, are sitting upright in wooden chairs, asleep at either end of a large table. The Mad Hatter is the first to wake and proceeds to deliver a deliciously enticing monologue, that lays the scene. In Hyland’s adaptation, he views the predicament of the Hatter and Hare as more of a punishment that has been dealt them without fairness or consideration. As he thumps his way around the stage, it’s not hard to feel some sort of pity for him. Was he always the ‘Mad Hatter’? Or has the perpetual teatime without food or drink caused him to lose his mind and sense of self? As Hare wakes, the true extent of their position becomes apparent, and though the Hatter at times seems to goad or bully Hare, who seems to have accepted their fait, the Hatter still holds out hope that they can return to some normality.
The Hatter exhausts himself in trying to find a reason for their confinement. This was an interesting insight, as most children love the idea of having a tea party that never ends, but Hyland’s Hatter exposes the painful nightmare that’s been dealt to them. One curious aspect of this production was the narrative between the Hatter and the Queen who punished them. On more than one occasion the way Hyland as the Hatter talks about the Queen and what transpired to lead to their punishment saw Hyland and Jewkes look over the audience as if in the direction of the Queen or to some other place. A place they’ve been banished from that was once home, a place they long to return but can't.
"It’s within this relationship that we really get to appreciate not only the predicament that Hatter and Hare are in but the pain that it’s caused and the life that has been stopped."
I have never been a fan of Alice in Wonderland. It’s not the fantasy of the narrative that I don’t like; I just think that it was ever a children’s book that connected with me. Children's stories have to forge a connection with the reader, and in turn, the reader needs to understand the piece, which allows them to really explore their imagination. Growing up, I was not the greatest fan of Alice in Wonderland and the various productions that it spun. But with Hyland’s interpretation, he has seen great value in exploring the text in an open-minded way that’s allowed him to extract a clear, funny, and at times heartbreaking narrative.
Though Hare might be resigned to their position, he’s the last to wake and the first to go back to sleep. There is one thing that he can’t get beyond, and that’s not having any food or drink. As a way to rain on Hare’s appeasement of their punishment, the Hatter makes him drink something. Hare’s reaction pulls him, even if just briefly, into the reality they face. There is an interesting chemistry between Hyland and Jewkes and their commitment to their respective characters. There isn't a moment that they let their guard down, and even though there are moments within the production that really play in knocking loudly on the theatrical fourth wall, they both retain a wonderful truth, innocence, and even likeability of their characters, which endear their struggle to the audience.
What Hyland has created is a play that offers audiences a slight pang of Waiting for Godot as the Hatter and Hare converse in a way that’s respectfully familiar to Vladimir and Estragon in the aforementioned play. It’s within this relationship that we really get to appreciate not only the predicament that Hatter and Hare are in but the pain that it’s caused and the life that has been stopped. As the play comes to an end, the Hatter is aware they’re going to reset, and for the audience, this is a sombre goodbye. The Hatter will awaken at teatime and will, once again, try to figure a way out of this repetition.