Wonderland Theatre ©2003-2009

Gulliver's Travels

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Arena
RTE Radio 1's Arena visited us during the run: you can listen here (approx. 38 minutes in)

Sunday Tribune

When breaking an egg, which is the correct end? On such matters do wars begin, as when the tiny Emperor of Lilliput orders Lemuel Gulliver to lead his Little-Endians into battle against the Big-Endians of Blefuscu. Jonathan Swift's 1725 satire takes many a swipe at the religious wars between Protestants and Catholics of that era.
Wonderland's production, with an ensemble cast of just five talented actors using puppets, models and shadow play is fast moving, funny and frequently bawdy - as when Gulliver (Nathan Gordon) is disgraced for quenching the fire on the Empress' boudoir by peeing on it from a great height. The confines of Smock Alley Theatre makes the audience really feel part of our hero's journey.
Fetched up in Brobdingnag our former "Man Mountain" is reduced to a grildig (midget) and becomes the plaything of Glumdalclitch (Roseanne Lynch) - a little girl of 60 feet in height. The cast are at their physical comedy best when Gulliver reaches the land of the Yahoo with the sad realisation that he's worryingly similar to these grunting, scratching creatures.
By comparison, the Houyhnhnms are noble and civilised, and Gulliver wishes nothing more than to stay and eat with them, and discuss why lying has no part in their language.
Although written almost 300 years ago, the belief that there are those in power "who say the thing which is not" still resonates. All credit to director Alice Coghlan for highlighting the horse sense as well as humour in Swift's timeless classic.

~ Valerie Shanley, 15th January 2011
DublinCulture.ie

The first act is about Gulliver's most well-known adventures, his visits to Lilliput and Brobdingnag. On Lilliput, he towers over the tiny inhabitants; on Brobdingnag, the locals are giants and he is treated as a silly amusement. In both cases the play uses puppetry to represent the interaction between characters of very different sizes. The costumes are very nicely done, matching up the actors with the corresponding puppets. I also appreciated that Gulliver is presented credibly as a man of his time - sometimes in fiction the protagonist seems like a modern 21st century person put incongruously into a historical setting. I do have one slight criticism: during the Lilliputian part of the play there were a few moments when I wondered if the pace might be too slow for the kids in the audience. (Glancing around, my impression was that that concern was unfounded.)
....
The second act is set in the land of the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnm; a land where horses can speak, and humans are dumb, ignorant savages. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the play - it's excellent on all levels, and the audience were enraptured, children and adults alike. The actors' representation of the equine movement of the Houyhnhnm was especially good. (Forget two-man horse-costumes, this is how it should be done.)
Wonderland Theatre can be proud of this production. They've taken on an extremely hard challenge and created an enjoyable show. It might be a little slow at times in the first act but the Houyhnhnm make up for that.
- Dave Madden, DublinCulture.ie
Read Reviews for other Wonderland shows.