Alice in Wonderland
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
A Noise Within
Closed, due to COVID-19
RECOMMENDED:
Sometimes, perhaps not as often as one might wish, a script that lacks a dramatic edge is transformed through the craft of the director and his or her company of technical artists and actors. This proves true with Alice in Wonderland, Eva La Gallienne and Florida Friebus’s 1932 stage adaptation of the work of Lewis Carroll, now revived at A Noise Within under the direction of Stephanie Shroyer. The production features a beguiling Erika Soto as the brave bewildered 7-and-a-half year-old Alice traipsing through a bizarre world that she labors to understand. Never off stage, Soto’s adventuress is the emotional anchor for a show draped with sterling stagecraft and versatile performances.
Scrupulously faithful to its source, la Gallienne and Friebus lifted every word of dialogue straight from the pages of Carroll’s two books, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The play is crafted as a series of episodic scenes that correspond to the most well-known anecdotes from these classics, which means that the narrative in its entirety lacks a forward momentum, an element of suspense and a final catharsis. But these missing elements matter less than they would otherwise because of the innovative staging and pleasing spectacle wrought by a combination of set, light, sound and, not least of all, Angela Balogh Calin’s spectacular costumes which Soto’s tirelessly agile fellow players slip on and off as the moment calls for with wizardry skill.
All the familiar highlights of Alice’s adventures are here: her unsettling meeting with the Cheshire Cat (Julanne Chidi Hill); her attendance at a lunatic tea party with the Mad Hatter (Rafael Goldstein), the March Hare (Kasey Mahaffy) and the Dormouse (Justin Lawrence Barnes); her encounter with the King and Queen of Hearts (Susan Angelo and Justin Lawrence Barnes in drag), with the short-fused latter threatening to take off her head, and her introduction to the singing duo, Tweedle Dee (Goldstein) and Tweedle Dum (Mahaffy) (one of the most delightful episodes in the show).
Ken Booth’s fluid lighting makes rich royal red the dominant hue on Frederica Nascimento’s transformative set, which brilliantly utilizes moving panels to support the illusion of Alice’s passage through a tiny portal, as well as the elusive disappearance of the Cheshire Cat.
Sound and music by Josh Grondin help underscore the conjury here and elsewhere. Balin’s madcap costumes, in tandem with Shannon Hutchins’s wig and makeup design are truly a visual feast of the dessert variety, initially inspired by John Tenniel’s illustrations in the original editions, and further elaborated upon with fantastically vivid color.
All these elements coalesce around a gifted ensemble unfazed by the multiple changes in character and costume they are called upon to make. It’s an impressive display indeed.
A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena; Closed, due to COVID-19. www.anoisewithin.org. Running time: one hour and 40 minutes with an intermission.
