Georgina Campbell is captivated by an imaginative study of the Wonderland creator

Tumbling down the rabbit hole into two hours of mesmerising lyrics and verse, The Real Lewis Carroll is a fascinating, funny and fantastical snapshot into Alice in Wonderland’s creator.

Jane Bramwell and Michael Band’s musical laid bare the conflicted life of Charles Dodgson – aka Carroll – as he struggled to balance the part of the clever logician with the pioneering photographer and writer.

The musical’s greatest success was to show this conflict with two actors: Stewart Briggs as the quiet, stammering Dodgson and Peter Watts as the live and vivacious Carroll.

The pair were chalk and cheese but together revealed the man behind one of literature’s favourite children’s characters to be creative, funny and charismatic but also inward, emotional and cowering. But it was not just these two characters that captivated the audience on the night.

The cast were electric to watch, their powerful voices filling the rafters of St Columba’s Church, and their energy throughout was entertaining as they switched from one character to the next.

The performance was the perfect setting to watch battle with his overbearing father, the Archdeacon, in his desperation to become a poet.

The well weaved-in musical interludes were the perfect opportunity to dramatise Dodgson’s struggle to find his creative voice, his affair with a married woman and his tempestuous relationship with the Dean of Christ Church.

A particular favourite was a song about soup, a light hearted tune sung right at the moment when the Dean (Allan Scott-Douglas) is interrupted at high table in the college by his hysterical wife as she tries to tell him their young son has died.

There are similar scenes like this in the musical, which juxtapose humour with the darkest of moments.

Emily-Louise Tomlins was captivating as Lorina Liddell, wife of the Dean, and lover of Dodgson.

A particularly moving scene followed Dodgson’s death, when she destroyed his diary to hide the evidence of their affair to save his reputation.

Beyond the laughter and passion, it stripped bare the complicated man behind Alice.

GEORGINA CAMPBELL 4/5