"Won­der­land," a new and ex­cit­ing the­atre pro­duc­tion will pre­mier at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) this week. The Car­val­ho Pro­duc­tions mu­si­cal pro­duc­tion is an adap­ta­tion of the time­less chil­dren sto­ry Al­ice in Won­der­land orig­i­nal­ly writ­ten by Eng­lish au­thor Charles Lutwidge Dodg­son, more pop­u­lar­ly known as Lewis Car­oll in 1865. The theme of the up­com­ing the­atri­cal pre­sen­ta­tion teach­es the im­por­tance of mak­ing haste. It al­so in­cludes lessons of moral val­ues and deal­ing with un­ex­pect­ed cir­cum­stances which are some­times thrown our way in life. The show pre­miers on Feb­ru­ary 28 to March 2, and con­tin­ues March 13 to 18 at NA­PA. Evening mar­ti­nees be­gins at 7.30 pm with dai­ly spe­cial school shows start­ing at 10 am. De­scribed as a mag­i­cal mu­si­cal with riv­et­ing dance, the Car­val­ho Pro­duc­tion sets the stage for Won­der­land, a lo­calised sto­ry of a girl called Al­i­son, a young feisty or­phan who des­per­ate­ly wants to be adopt­ed.

Al­i­son bumps her head while clean­ing the room and ends up in Won­der­land where she meets Ibis, Cor­beaux, Mouse, Cow and evil Cra­paud and Queen Reds. Usu­al­ly in­tro­vert­ed and adrift, Al­i­son finds it dif­fi­cult to ad­just while be­ing the cen­tre of at­trac­tion when she be­gins to ques­tion the re­al­i­ty of Won­der­land. Al­i­son soon meets the "Hat­ter" and joins in on his hi­lar­i­ous es­capades of drink­ing "T" at his mad car­ni­val par­ty and adopt­ing his care­free lifestyle which is the true essence of Won­der­land. Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Car­val­ho Pro­duc­tions, Fareid Car­val­ho fea­tured as "Hat­ter," is no stranger to the stage. Some of his past pro­duc­tions were The Wiz­ard of Oz, the Lit­tle Mer­maid and the Li­on King. The mu­si­cal was di­rect­ed and writ­ten by Pene­lope Spencer with dance chore­o­graphed by Lin­da Pol­lard-Lake, while mu­sic and sound de­sign were done by John H Smith of JCS Sounds. Al­so cred­it­ed are Lu­cia Eligon for make­up, Calvin French for pho­tog­ra­phy, cos­tume de­sign Sean Ed­wards and Ben­ty Lash­ley for light­ing.