Review: Step into Wonderland with ALICE and the Plague Mask Players!

Alice: A Variation on Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland

by Ara Vito

Directed by Samantha Calatozzo Cobb

Produced by Plague Mask Players

Audience Rating: PG 

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission

Accessible Seating: Available

Hearing Devices: Not Available

Sensory Friendly Showing: Not Available

ASL Showing: Not Available

Sound Level: Comfortable Volume, loud at times, occasionally too soft

Noises of Visuals to Prepare For: Some loud yelling and very mild sword fighting

Reviewed by Natalie Shaw

"We are but grown-up children." 

Alice in Wonderland is not an unfamiliar text and hasn't been for several generations, since it's first publishing in 1865. It's nonsensical narrative has touched the lives of many children and encouraged the imaginations of adults and children, alike.

Alice: A Variation on Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland aims to make a little more sense out of the nonsense with which we're so established. As the show begins, we are met with a young, bright artist and her beautiful masterpiece drawing of a royal castle. Alice, played with a innocent charm by Natalie Haruka Ewe, seeks to please her parents with her creation, but neither have time for her, being too busy with their own lives and fulfilling their own destinies. In the height of their frustration with her, they announce that she is a burden, an "inconvenience" and that they really wanted a son, shaping her poor, young mind into believing that perhaps, this is all true!

As if by destiny, the kind and creative, Lewis Carrol (played with parental examin and eager mentorship by Marilyn Setu) stumbles onto the scene, taking considerate caution and mentorship of the young Alice, leading her through the looking-glass into Alice's very own Wonderland! 

This beautiful ensemble of actors take on the various elements of Alice's psychosis, ranging from Fear (as displayed in characters presented by Jaclyn Thomas as Queen/Jabberwocky,) Anxiety/Depression (as displayed by CJ Olsen: Mad Hatter/Father/Boy) Desire/Pleasure (Isabel Culpepper: Cat/ Mother/Doormouse,) Creativity (Henri Sudy: Tweedle Dee-Dum/Hare/Peacock) and Grace and Grandeur (Bayley Owen: Caterpillar/Time.) 

Costumes by Director Samantha Calatozzo Cobb add color to each element against the bright white, blank-canvas backdrops of the set. A white platform, centerstage, plays double duty as large, lowered table for the Tea Party. And props made of wire serve purpose as an outline for what our own imaginations can fill-in. Mystical and mysterious sound design by Jared Cobb is appropriate alongside the dimly-lit lighting designs by Mia Lindemann.

Alice continues through April 27 at the Wylie Studio in the AT&T Performing Arts Center! So be sure to grab a seat and witness this beautiful production before it's gone! Tickets can be purchased at plaguemaskplayers.org

Enjoy the Show!

Natalie Shaw