Qurioser and Qurioser: Keble Croquet

There was a lot of Pimms.

Keble Arts Week really took ‘audience participation’ to heart. After freaking people out at Hacked Off Film’s Black Swan, The Red Queen circulated invitations for an immersive croquet game – complete with Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, Alice and The Cheshire Cat. 

Competing with Wadstock, city-wide animal-rights protests and a forecast of heavy rain, fears were rife but unfounded.

What set this production apart was the attention to detail – produced by Direct-H, the company behind immersive installations for ‘In The Woods’ and the upcoming ‘Wilderness’ Festival – it included professional costumes, flamingo croquet mallets, a shisha pipe and a lot of Pimms.

The audience didn’t skimp on the effort either – Keble JCR President donned a gorilla suit, and a lace-laden girl earned the title ‘neo-Alice’ from an increasingly inebriated Mad Hatter.

The two hours were filled with nonsensical croquet games, lobster quadrilles, caucus races, mutinies against The Red Queen, and a lot of Pimms. As with any immersive production, audience reaction was key – it varied from laughter to offence, underlined mostly by confusion.

The characters stole glasses of Pimms, moved croquet balls/hoops, and enforced conversations of invented reality. The most surreal moment was when another Mad Hatter, the Walking Tour entrepreneur and Monster-Raving-Loony-Party politician, stumbled into Pusey Quad canvassing for votes.

Keble’s Mad Hatter promptly challenged him to a flamingo duel to the death – politics hadn’t been so ridiculous since Boris Johnson got stuck on that zip-line.

The Pimms ran dry and it was time for The Red Queen to announce a winner. A
meticulously chosen audience member fought through congratulatory characters
to open a large, mysterious box and claim her prize. It was one jammy dodger.
The Mad Hatter then ate it.

An infuriated Red Queen bellowed “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS” and the cast
bolted out of the quad, leaving the audience confused and the politician Mad
Hatter cleaning up the mess (‘green policies’).

Immersive productions are particularly difficult to get right – relying almost
entirely on improvisation and unpredictable audience reaction. In Oxford, most
people will have only experienced it at Hacked Off events or the occasional Ball.

In this light, Direct-H and Keble Arts Week very impressively pulled it off – much
like Alice In Wonderland itself the production was surreal and often confusing,
but stylistically beautiful and never boring.

Did I mention there was a lot of Pimms?

Photos: Keble Arts Festival

Check out Direct-H’s website for more photos from The Wonderland Croquet Game and upcoming events