Photo credit: Cités Immersives
Dock X has welcomed its fair share of spectacular immersive experiences in recent years, often taking audiences on journeys through history. Alice Immersive Wonderland takes a rather different route, inviting visitors into Lewis Carroll’s wonderfully nonsensical world through elaborate sets, 360° projections, interactive installations, and live performance.
And what a world it is. The star of the experience is undoubtedly its set design. The attention to detail across each room, from the costumes and props to the visual effects and atmosphere, is extraordinary. Carroll’s fantasy world comes with high expectations, having been imagined and reimagined so many times across books, film and theatre, but the creative team does a remarkable job of bringing its eccentricity to life. Each space feels carefully considered, bursting with colour, texture and playful details that reward a closer look.
The experience unfolds across several rooms, with visitors encouraged to spend around ten minutes exploring each one. Alongside the main projections, there are interactive elements, visual discoveries and snippets of information about Lewis Carroll and the origins of the story, woven into the journey. The technology is particularly impressive. Each room has its own accompanying scents, while a headset provides a soundtrack and allows visitors to hear additional explanations simply by approaching certain points in the space. It is an inventive way of layering information into the experience without interrupting the freedom to explore.
Some rooms are especially memorable. The tea party is a treasure trove of detail, capturing the playful absurdity of Wonderland with plenty to discover. Later, the labyrinth offers another lovely interactive touch, allowing visitors to create virtual drawings that are scanned and brought to life on the walls. These are the moments when the experience feels at its most successful: when the audience is not simply looking at Wonderland, but actively becoming part of it.
Where the experience begins to lose its footing, however, is in its storytelling. Alice’s journey unfolds through the main projections in each room, but the writing feels rather flat compared with the richness of the surrounding environments. The familiar characters and broad outline of Carroll’s story are recognisable, yet there is little depth to their journey or development. There is also a noticeable disconnect between the projected narrative and the immersive elements happening around it. The rooms are full of imagination, but the story rarely makes the most of them.
This becomes particularly apparent in the final room, where a 360° projection-mapped sequence attempts to bring everything together through themes of identity, imagination and reality. Visually, it is stunning, and the scale of the projections makes for an impressive finale. Yet, once again, the emotional and narrative impact does not quite match the spectacle. With the room filling up with visitors, it can also become harder to connect with what is unfolding on screen, making the conclusion feel more like something to admire than a journey to be invested in.
There is so much promise here, and an impressive amount of craft behind the world-building. Alice Immersive Wonderland succeeds in creating a visually rich and imaginative environment that invites curiosity and exploration. But immersion is about more than beautiful rooms and clever technology. A stronger narrative, with more attention paid to Alice’s character and the journey she is taking, would give audiences something to root for rather than simply something to stand and watch.
A wonderful Wonderland to explore, then, even if the story gets a little lost down the rabbit hole.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Beatriz Ferreira
