It is not easy turning a large, ginger-haired Scotsman into a unicorn.

Just ask Clare Sheppard, founder of Sonic Boom Theatre Company, actress, playwright and the woman tasked with that transformation.

"The costumes have definitely been the biggest challenge," she says, of the company's forthcoming production of Alice Through the Looking Glass which coincides with the 140th anniversary of the book's publication.

"We are a relatively new theatre company and we do not have big budgets to be able to rent stuff or hire someone professional to make them.

"So we are relying on Scottish Youth Theatre, which is very generously lending us lots of things, and I am making the rest myself."

It is no small achievement, when you consider Lewis Carroll's whimsical and sometimes eerie follow-up to Alice In Wonderland is populated with weird and wonderful figures, such as talking flowers, depressed insects, Humpty Dumpty and a flamboyant Mad Hatter - and Clare is also playing Alice.

"I have not slept for about a month," she says, cheerily, on a rare break from her manic schedule.

"Costume-making has always been a hobby – my gran was a seamstress and she used to make all my Hallowe'en costumes. I watched her and got to help out and I loved it."

Clare, 23, who is from Blantyre, Lanarkshire, and fellow Strathclyde University film and theatre student Kenny Boyle, 27, who is from Glasgow's South Side, set up Sonic Boom last year.

"I decided at the end of my third year that I wanted to write a play but I knew if I did it on my own, I would never stick to it," she explains.

"I am so flighty and never stick to anything, but I thought if I had someone doing it with me, I would have no choice but to get it done.

"I knew Kenny vaguely at uni, so I sent him an e-mail, and we had a really awkward meeting in Starbucks, where we tried to sort out what on earth we wanted to do."

However, the seeds had been sown and Sonic Boom was born.

Its first production, in April, was A Midsummer Night's Dream, an edgy, fresh version of Shakespeare's comedy that won the young company many plaudits.

Its second was Clare's own play about euthanasia, No Time Has Passed In Hippoland. Alice Through The Looking Glass, the seldom-seen sequel to Alice In Wonderland, will be its third.

Clare explains: "The biggest difference between Wonderland and Looking Glass is Alice,"

"This time she is older, more empowered and in control of her own adventure.

"Last time she fell into Wonderland by mistake and spent the whole time trying to get out, but this time she went deliberately to conquer it.

"It is not the story of a little girl trapped in a magic world, it is the story of a quest to become queen.

"I don't know if I would go as far as to call it feminist but she definitely is a very strong character and I am really looking forward to playing her.

"The beauty of Lewis Carroll's writing is it can be appreciated by everyone.

"Of course, children will be entertained by the whimsical characters and nonsense poems, but equally adults are drawn in by his sheer wit, his clever wordplay and his shrewd social commentary.

"These stories are quite dark and edgy and our show will reflect that."

After Alice, Clare and Kenny have an exhausting project in mind.

"We want to break the world record for the longest continuous theatre marathon," says Clare.

"I think the current record is three solid days, so we are working on finding 20 or so actors who have the talent and stamina to do it."

It has been a great first year for Sonic Boom, and Clare is optimistic about the future.

"A friend who has a great business brain told us every new company makes a loss in its first 12 months," she says.

"But our first year is not quite over yet, and we have managed to fund Alice from the profits of our previous productions, with some profit left over. That feels like a great achievement.

"I saw an advert for a sofa company on telly and realised the amount of money we have in the bank is exactly the same as the price of the sofa in the advert.

"So if all else fails, at least we will always have a couch."

l Alice Through The Looking Glass is at the Arches from tomorrow until Saturday. Times vary. Tickets £9 (£7 concession) or £8 per person on bookings of 10 or more. Call the box office on 0141 565 1000 or see the website www.thearches.co.uk to book or to find more information.