Lewis Carroll's Wonderland goes under the big top this Christmas, as the creators of Circus 1903 bring Cirque Alice to the Royal Festival Hall for its European premiere, with Layla Schillert in the title role and a company of circus acts from around the world. Here is everything you need to know before you book.
The Royal Festival Hall spends most of the year as a concert hall. This Christmas its stage is handed to acrobats, contortionists, a roller-skating royal couple and a Mad Hatter who is, by trade, a comedy magician. Cirque Alice is the new show from Simon Painter and Tim Lawson, whose Circus 1903 sold out two seasons at the Southbank Centre, and it gives its European premiere on the South Bank on 12 December 2026 for a run of a little over three weeks.
Who is starring in Cirque Alice?
Layla Schillert, a 19-year-old singer and screen actress who reached the Top 50 of Australian Idol in 2023, plays Alice. The figures she meets on the way down the rabbit hole are a mix of actors, musicians and speciality performers: Darren 'Dizzy' Partridge, a comedy magician whose career has run from the West End to the Sydney Opera House, is The Mad Hatter; the violinist Raphael Papo is The Cheshire Cat; and Billy Ellitts, a dancer and choreographer still training at Rambert School, is The White Rabbit.
The rest of Wonderland is cast from the circus ring, as the full company announcement at the end of October made clear. Dario Togni and Michael Togni, from one of Italy's oldest circus families, are The Tweedles, performing Icarian games; the Ramadhani Brothers, Ibrahim Jobu Ramadhani and Fadhili Ramadhani, winners of America's Got Talent: Fantasy League in 2024, head-balance as The Knights; and the roller-skating pair Duo Transcend, Mary Ellen Nielsen Wolfe and Spencer Tyce Nielsen, runners-up on America's Got Talent: The Champions in 2020, are The White Queen and The White King. A contortion quartet from Mongolia, Enkhzaya Battogoo, Dolgorsuren Ganbold, Doljinsuren Ganbold and Shinechimeg Otgonbayar, make up The Caterpillar, with Vladyslav Tsarov on the flying pole as Snap Dragonfly, Viktor Hladchenko on the Cyr wheel as The March Hare, Daniel Onofre on the Rolla Bolla as The Dormouse, Veronika Ivanova as a hand-balancing Queen of Hearts, and Anna Stelmakh and Evgeni Slepukhin as The Flamingos.
The dance ensemble is Lillianna Clifton, Kenya McKay-Goodridge, who makes her professional stage debut here, Mark Samaras, Ricardo Walker and Sasha Woodward, and between them the last three bring West End credits in The Lion King, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and The Prince of Egypt. Molly Hord, the Royal Albert Hall's Organ Scholar for 2026-27, is the company's organist.
Spotlight on Raphael Papo
Anyone who saw the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's Fiddler on the Roof has already heard Raphael Papo, even if the name is new to them. He played the Fiddler himself, the solitary figure whose tune opens the musical and keeps returning to it, first in the park and then when the production moved to the Barbican, and the performance brought him an Olivier Award nomination. Away from musicals he works as a violinist, violist and composer across classical music and theatre, dividing his time between London and Berlin. Cirque Alice casts him once again as a musician who is also a character, this time as The Cheshire Cat, in a show whose soundtrack is built from reworked classical pieces. It is an intriguing fit, and the place to judge it is the Royal Festival Hall, where Cirque Alice plays through the Christmas holidays.
What is Cirque Alice about?
The starting point is Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the outline is the one most of the audience will already carry with them: a girl follows a hurrying rabbit underground and lands in a world where size, time and good manners have all come loose. What changes is the method of telling it. Rather than acting the book scene by scene, the show turns Carroll's characters into circus acts, so the Caterpillar becomes a stack of contortionists and the Tweedles a double act in which one brother juggles the other.
It lasts two hours and is built as a family show, combining aerial work, acrobatics, contortion and puppetry with guest musical acts and new arrangements of classical favourites. Some of the audience are seated on the stage itself, with the performers working directly above their heads.
Who is behind the production?
The show was created by Simon Painter and Tim Lawson, a partnership that began with Le Grand Cirque at the Sydney Opera House and went on to produce the group magic show The Illusionists, which broke box office records at the Shaftesbury Theatre, as well as Circus 1903, the circus show whose life-sized elephants were made by puppeteers from War Horse. Ash Jacks McCready and Kirsty Painter lead the creative team as creative directors, with choreography by Dane Bates, costumes by Angela Aaron and lighting by Hugo Mercier. The musical arrangements are by Martin Raabe-Olsen and Marius Christiansen. Roast Productions and Senbla present the season in association with Painter and Lawson.
When and where can I see it?
Cirque Alice runs at the Royal Festival Hall from Saturday 12 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, with press night on Tuesday 15 December 2026. The running time is two hours. The show is recommended for ages 5 and over, and under-12s must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets currently start at £37.
What else should I book if I like it?
- KURIOS by Cirque du Soleil keeps the circus going into the new year, with its steampunk cabinet of curiosities at the Royal Albert Hall from 13 January to 28 February 2027.
- Matthew Bourne's Cinderella at Sadler's Wells is another fairy tale reimagined for the season, this time told entirely through dance.
- The Snowman at the Peacock Theatre suits the same family audience, a wordless Christmas story in music and movement.
- Room on the Broom at the Lyric Theatre is the pick for the youngest members of the party, another much-loved picture book brought to the stage.
