Brian Cox and Bill Paterson return to Lyceum for 50th anniversary season". list.co.uk. The List. 14 April 2015 . Retrieved 19 April 2015. Certainly this is a play of two halves with the second far exceeding the first as its young cast grew in confidence. Having recently read the script of Laura Wade's Posh (though sadly not seen the play), I had high expectations of this production and was not disappointed. The dialogue in the various encounters on Alice's journey through Wonderland is sharp, witty, and comfortably includes local and national reference. The production is fast moving, amusing, inventive, and visually delightful. It was good to see a stage so peopled with actors (including a large group of children), in interesting groupings and emitting so much energy. Graham O'Mara was on slightly dodgy ground as the Cheshire cat - 'Stroke my tummy' - but this scene was handled with consummate tact by director Lyndsey Turner, and O'Mara's convincing and innocent cat like purring deflated any thoughts of impropriety. John Biddle and Oliver Birch's double act as Tweedledum and Tweedledee was beautifully delivered and very funny. 'How cool is that?' We have two girls, and we think a lot about how we raise them as girls, what role models are available to them, what stories, and where they can see themselves in art. With that increased awareness it feels important to create work that isn’t exploitative, that tells positive stories, and to write about things that matter.

Film4, which produced The Riot Club with Blueprint Pictures and the BFI, had its eyes on Wade as soon as it knew the play was under way, according to commissioning executive Sam Lavender: " It was beautifully written, witty, tough and humane, and she clearly had a great ear for the voices of these young men. I saw it a couple of times more after its transfer to the West End, and half the fun for me became watching the crowd's reactions to her characters, how torn they were between liking and judging these guys. That takes great skill to pull off."

The Criterion is always generous in its support for young theatre practitioners and to the community generally, and in devoting their Christmas production to a platform for the next generation did them and everyone else a good turn. Much may come out of this production, much that we cannot predict. Forwith imagination there is always hope, as the audience were clearly aware, as they responded with an enthusiasm that matched that on stage.

Throughout the long development process, Lavender adds, Wade kept a close hold on the boys she had created.The White Rabbit is late for the Duchess. The Cheshire Cat wont stop grinning. And the Hatter is, well, mad. In the middle of it all is Alice, a young girl with a vivid imagination and a family life thats less than perfect. Alice sets out on an inward journey, on which she encounters the familiar figures from Dodgson's story, who provide experiences and proffer advice about how to cope with the ups and downs of life. She eventually emerges, more capable of dealing with her loss, and ready to re-enter the real world. In a final encounter, the White Rabbit summarises the advice that she's been given on the way, and helps Alice to reflect on her 'learning experience'. So, the theme of this version, which starts with a funeral, is teenage bereavement and how to deal with it. Personally, I would have liked more glitter in the set - well it is Christmas - and couldn't really recommend it for the under tens if only because of its length and complexity. I may be proved wrong by the end of the week. They are quite entertaining," says Wade, in the manner of a fond zookeeper. "They're witty. They're clever. They have the verbal facility to follow an argument through to its end. This isn't a rugby-club dinner. The charge in the room is intellectual as well as physical." Theatre review: Breathing Corpses at Royal Court Theatre Upstairs". Britishtheatreguide.info . Retrieved 26 November 2016.

Alice is updated, from Victorian hairband-sporting dreamer, to a modern day teenager whose elder brother has just died in a car crash. The play opens with the funeral reception, in which a bewildered Alice staggers amongst an assorted array of emotionally absent parents, interfering school teachers and well-meaning relatives. As the clichés fly, the emotional horror of the situation intensifies until suddenly the garish figures are mysteriously banished...only to gradually reappear wearing Cheshire grins and carrying piglets. Alice was side-splittingly funny as well as chokingly touching, and achieved a delicate balance between surreal humour and realist expression with some outstanding comic performances.Cooke, Rachel (25 November 2007). "Best of the West: Rachel Cooke interviews actor Sam West". The Observer. UK . Retrieved 6 June 2015. Wade was born in Bedfordshire and grew up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. She studied Drama at Bristol University and was a member of the Young Writers' Program at the Royal Court Theatre. Disney+ Reveals New Original Series "Rivals", an Outrageously Bold Eight-Part Saga Full of Power, Betrayal and Romance, Based on Jilly Cooper's Iconic Novel". Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for Breathing Corpses and Colder Than Here, 2005

The four other actors, Adam Elliott, Dean Lamb, Suzy Nutt and Reece Miller, take on all the other thirty roles and display an impressive ability to switch character and costume in an instant – some seriously talented young people here. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are a special treat. After a drama degree at Bristol University, she began writing seriously, earning her keep with temp jobs during the day. "Temping was good. At the beginning of the week, I'd hate everyone. By the end of the week, there'd be all these characters; everyone had some sort of quirk." But she regards her move to London and her joining of the Royal Court's young writers programme as the real start of her career. The Court was a wonderful refuge, not least because, for the first time, she met other writers. The life of a playwright is, she concedes, an odd one: the "massively introverted" months of working alone, followed by the "massively extrovert thing" of having a play on. And right now, it is even weirder than usual. Her boyfriend, Sam West, is starring in the West End hit, Enron, a show she has seen seven times. Sundays have become "very precious". West is a noted birdwatcher. Has he given that up by way of a concession? No. "I think I thought it was a bit dorky at the beginning," she says. "But actually, it's thrilling. I love it. It's about evolving a different way of looking and hearing. We go all over and it's nice having something that we do that isn't about the theatre, though it isn't necessarily very calming when you're driving five hours to see a bird that may, or may not, have flown away by the time you get there."Snow, Georgia (31 October 2014). "Posh leads Nottingham Playhouse's spring 2015 season". The Stage. Nottingham . Retrieved 31 October 2014. Her next play, Tipping The Velvet, an adaptation of Sarah Walters' novel, premiered at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in September 2015 before transferring to the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. In 2018, Wade's Home, I'm Darling opened at Theatr Clwyd in July, before transferring to the National Theatre. Wade's adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished story, The Watsons, premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre in November of the same year. Our production involves a mixed age cast, including a number of roles being undertaken by members of our drama classes. A family production par excellence!