Theatre Lab Company’s new production is an innovative re-telling of the beloved classic story, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland accompanied by an original live musical score.

A story blending the old and the new, classic and contemporary, reality and imagination, all coming together in the quest to understand our identity. Set in contemporary London, Mr. Rose, a property investor, believes he has struck gold when he buys a new building, the Asylum, a former Victorian asylum. As he prepares to demolish the building, he decides to pay a visit to the site, only to find that it is not empty as expected. Here, he meets Alice, the last patient of the Asylum before it was forced to shut down in 1873. Curious and impatient, Mr. Rose does all he can to get Alice out of the Asylum and proceed with his dream of gentrification. Alice, however, has other ideas. It’s time for tea, you see.

The production will be staged at the Victorian Asylum Chapel in South London, then tour at The Electric Theatre, Guildford and the Old Fire Station, Oxford. Lewis Carroll had strong connections with all three cities throughout his life. At St. Mark’s Church in Maida Vale, recently destroyed by a fire, he first met the Liddell family whose youngest daughter, Alice, was the inspiration for his novel. He spent much of his life in Oxford where he studied and worked at Christchurch College and wrote Alice in Wonderland. Guildford is his resting place, at the Mount Cemetery, and he spent much time in Guildford visiting his sisters. He preached at St Mary’s Church, the Alice Through The Looking Glass statue can be seen in the castle grounds and the statue of Alice with her sister, watching the rabbit go down the hole is in Millmead by the river.