There’s a particular kind of goosebumps you get when a story you thought was finished decides to keep going. I felt them the moment I heard the news: Cirque Alice, the show that had me falling head over heels down a rabbit hole at Rooty Hill’s Coliseum Theatre, is coming back. And this time, Wonderland is moving into the heart of the city.
From 25 September to 11 October, the Sydney Lyric Theatre will transform into Lewis Carroll’s fever dream for an exclusive return season. If last year’s premiere was a taste of the madness, this feels like the full banquet, a bigger stage, a bigger spotlight, and, I suspect, an even bigger sense of “curiouser and curiouser.”
I still think about that night at the Coliseum. The Mad Hatter breaking the fourth wall with sleight-of-hand and sharper wit. A soprano Alice whose voice felt like it belonged somewhere between a fairy tale and the West End. Contortionists folding themselves into a living, breathing Caterpillar.
A pair of brothers balancing head-to-head with nothing but trust and neck strength between them and disaster. It was two hours where gravity felt more like a suggestion than a law, and I walked out still a little dizzy from the wonder of it all.
So when I read that Cirque Alice was returning, not touring on, but coming back to Sydney for an exclusive encore, my first thought wasn’t “will it be good.” I already know it will be. My first thought was: I get to fall down that rabbit hole all over again.
It’s easy to forget, in the whirl of aerial silks and Cyr wheels, just how much pedigree sits behind this production. Producers Tim Lawson and Simon Painter are the creative minds behind some of the biggest names in contemporary circus and illusion, The Illusionists, Now You See Me Live, Le Noir, Circus 1903, and Cirque du Soleil’s Mad Apple among them.
Cirque Alice is their love letter to one of the most enduring fantasy worlds ever written, reimagined through acrobatics, aerial artistry, puppetry, and a newly arranged soundtrack that reworks classical favourites into something entirely its own.
Painter has spoken about how naturally Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland lends itself to circus storytelling — the eccentric characters, the dreamlike logic, the sense that anything could happen next. Lawson, meanwhile, frames it simply as a show for everyone: date night, family outing, or a solo indulgence in spectacle. Having sat in that audience myself, I can vouch for all three.
There’s something fitting about Cirque Alice graduating to Sydney Lyric Theatre for this season. The Coliseum gave the show its Sydney premiere and an intimacy that suited its strange, storybook charm. Sydney Lyric, sitting right in the pulse of The Star precinct, gives it room to breathe, and puts it exactly where a show this ambitious belongs: centre stage in the city.
For anyone who missed the premiere, this is the entry point. For those of us who were there, it’s a chance to see how the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat and company land on a brand-new stage — and whether the madness gets even bigger with the extra space to play in.
Cirque Alice Venue: Sydney Lyric Theatre
Season: 25 September – 11 October 2026
Performance times: Wed–Sat 7pm, Sun 6pm, with matinees Wed, Thu, Sat & Sun at 1pm
Tickets: From $69 (transaction fees apply), on sale now via ticketmaster.com.au or 1300 795 267
Immersive, eccentric, and just a little bit mad — Cirque Alice is a two-hour spectacle built for anyone who’s ever wanted to chase the White Rabbit and see where he leads. Last year, I followed him to Rooty Hill. This September, I’ll be following him into the city.
