"Lewis Carroll would be absolutely horrified"

It features sketches by iconic British cartoonist Ralph Steadman, who worked with Punch and Hunter S Thompson, and it has been directed by Shoreditch’s Netia Jones.

We caught up with her to find out more.

Where did you grow up and study?

I grew up in London and I read Modern Languages at Oxford.

Where do you live these days?

I live in Camden and I work in Shoreditch.

When did your passion for theatre/opera begin?

I was surrounded by music as a child, as well as by design, so it was a natural progression. The first opera that I saw was Peter Grimes. I drew pictures of it for weeks afterwards and having been to orchestral concerts since a very early age, was very excited by the collision of music, theatre and design.

When and how did you get involved in Alice in Wonderland?

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Barbican approached me about this project as early as 2011.

What did you think when you first heard Unsuk Chin’s adaptation?

At the time I had just staged Ligeti’s Nonsense Madrigals, and there was a connection to them. It’s crazed, fiendishly complex, and maximal! I am a great fan of Unsuk’s music and imagination. It also seemed impossible to stage which appealed to me.

How would you describe this version?

Unsuk Chin and the librettist David Henry Hwang have created something resolutely modern, anarchic and innovative, but which has an authenticity, and a resonance with the original text. However it is not a picture-book version, it is more like a hyper-drive Alice In Wonderland on acid.

How is it different to the original?

Unsuk has interpolated two dreams at the start and end of the piece, and David Henry Hwang has added some virtuoso wordsmanship, otherwise the episodes come from the book, but are startlingly re-imagined. It is the original strapped to a rocket seen through multi-coloured glasses and heard through a megaphone in multiple languages.

What is your childhood memory of the story?

Like many children I loved the tales and the characters, and enjoyed Alice’s bravura and curiosity, then later, as a student having tutorials at Christ Church where Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was a student and then professor, I became more aware of the many, many other layers in this work, its genesis, allusions and associations.

Favourite character?

In the book, the March Hare; in the opera, the Dormouse; and in Ralph Steadman’s illustration, the Lobster, surely one of the best drawings there has ever been.

Why do you think it has endured for 150 years?

As the book works on so many levels, it is at once completely opaque and very transparent. It is completely open to interpretation and can appeal equally to a child, a student into psychedelics, a mathematician, a crossword puzzler, a Freudian, a historian... I could go on and on.

How did Ralph Steadman get involved?

I knew that I wanted to use illustration in the projections, but nothing quite had the punch and vigour of Unsuk Chin’s high octane score, until I came across Ralph’s illustrations for Alice, which chimed straight away. They have the same riotous energy and danger, and have the darkness of Chin’s music, together with brilliant humour and technical skill. Ralph is an extraordinary, uncompromising and deeply humane artist.

How have you incorporated his sketches?

All of the projected illustrations are by Ralph. We have animated and designed around them, sometime the live performer interacts with them, sometimes they create a backdrop.

What do you think Lewis Caroll would say about it?

Lewis Carroll would be absolutely horrified and would probably have an attack of the nerves, followed by frenzied letter-writing.

Are you working on any other projects?

My next assignment is Atthis by Georg Friedrich Haas for the Royal Opera House. It is an extraordinarily still, mesmeric work scored for one soprano and small ensemble. It is the diametrical opposite of Alice In Wonderland!

Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS, Sunday, March 8, 7.30pm. Details: 020 7638 8891, barbican.org.uk