Alice's imagined realm is famously one in which rules and conventional wisdom do not apply. So, too, is the Tobacco Factory's festive family show, once again a world away from the undemanding fodder of so many pantomimes. In this mesmerising production, director Andy Burden proves that you do not need fairy godmothers, chart hits, catchphrases, or well-known faces to keep children enthralled. And grown-ups can watch without brain-rot setting in.
Two things in particular distinguish this vivid retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic. Charlie Camm's set, all sliding panels and handy things to hide behind, revolves around a mirror that changes into a film screen once Alice has stepped through it. Here, film projections offer another imaginative layer to the action, mirroring and extending what we see on stage, and making the magical scope of the visual experience considerably richer. Best of all, this trickery is used only judiciously, so that our attention stays with the real Alice before our eyes, and not the reflection on screen.
But there would be little danger of attention wandering from Caroline Garland's utterly absorbing performance as Alice. Credible as the lonely, overly imaginative nine-year-old, Garland brings a perfect nervous edge and energy to her journey through the unknown. She has a face that brilliantly captures the kind of quizzical look you might have when flowers start singing to you and the Queen thinks she's a shopkeeping sheep.
The rest of the small cast put in equally impressive performances in a show that brings a thrillingly dreamlike world and all its quirky creatures to life with just five actors, simple songs and a spot of dry ice. The story, when it is this well told, does the rest.
· Until January 20. Box office: 0117-902 0344.
