Cirque Alice is back, fresh from a sell-out season in Singapore and just in time to cap off the 160th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Cirque Alice. Photo supplied

Devised by Creative Producer Simon Painter and the team behind The Illusionists and Cirque du Soleil’s Las Vegas hit Mad Apple, it reimagines Carroll’s 1865 classic and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There as a series of acrobatic routines that must be seen to be believed.

While Mad Apple immerses audiences in New York’s night club scene, Cirque Alice takes audiences back to the Parisian music halls where aerialists, acrobats and magicians rubbed shoulders with showbiz legends such as Loïe Fuller and Mistinguett, who dazzled audiences with their exotic and often risqué routines.

Here, Carroll’s books are a springboard, and rather than adhering to their narratives, the creative team conjures up impressions of Wonderland that are as beguiling to the audience as they are to Alice.

Featuring choreography by Dane Bates, Cirque Alice is staged semi-in-the-round with a handful of audience members seated around a central podium and catwalk that is accessed through a wisteria-covered arbour. The only other...