By Wendell Brock
For the AJC
Over the years, Lewis Carroll’s "Alice in Wonderland" has been a fruitful source of adaptations. The familiar tale appears with some regularity, ranging from filmmaker Tim Burton's 2010 Disney film starring Johnny Depp to “Lookingglass Alice,” the fanciful musing by Chicago's influential Lookingglass Theatre staged at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre two years ago.
Now the little girl and her surreal fantasy come to Serenbe Playhouse, in a world premiere adaptation by the team that made a splash last summer with a socially conscious, lakeside treatment of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling.”
As conceived by playwright Rachel Teagle and director Brian Clowdus, "Alice" is a commedia dell'arte homage that makes imaginative use of the mysteries lurking in the shadows of this southside community’s magnificent forest, just footsteps from its destination village.
Trudging cautiously into the woods one recent Saturday, slightly lost and open to the fresh possibility of morning, I felt myself being pulled toward the loopy sound of tinkling piano music coming from ... where was the weird noise coming from? I was beckoned deeper down the rabbit hole by a grouping of silent sentinels (actors in character) that dotted the path.
Curious and curiouser, indeed!
Dressed in designer Brandon R. McWilliams’ Pulcinella smocks, this young, energetic ensemble prove themselves to be superb clowns in an adaptation playfully refashioned with pop-culture updates.
If the Mad Hatter (Molly Schoolmeester) seems a bit like a coat-hanger-wielding Mommy Dearest and the Queen of Hearts (Stephanie Zandra Peyton) sounds like Jennifer Holliday, it is purely intentional. Officially, this is a family show, but adults will smile at the mention of “her royal heinous” and a brief infomercial about the importance of recycling. The “Caucus-Race” riff may sound topical, but it’s actually from the original 1865 source.
While the comic buffoonery brings to mind Cirque du Soleil, what draws us into the tale is Alice (Skylar Nicholson), prim and precocious in her blue and white frock and crocheted, turned-down socks. Because every aspect of Alice is just so (porcelain skin, long red ringlets), the journey that begins when she falls backward off an old piano is all the richer.
Alice is awakened by the circus of masked characters that springs from her dream: the absurdly interchangeable Tweddledee (Cody Brown) and Tweddledum (Evan Goetz); White Rabbit (Laura Sack); Cheshire Cat (the terrific Ralph Del Rosario) and a Shakespeare-spouting Caterpillar (a threesome led by Peyton).
Teagle’s wry wit and love of punning make the show sparkle and sing. The raucous comedy that's the Clowdus trademark incites many giggles. But the most beguiling elements of this site-specific piece are, for me, its subtleties: the magic of an old upright piano in the middle of nowhere spewing bubbles; the hypnotic soundscape; Alice’s final exit down a clearing in the forest.
In just three seasons, this theater's inspired, environmentally responsive offerings have become a beloved ritual, a festival-like program to anticipate and savor. If Alice is going to trip down a tunnel of the mind, there's no better setting than Serenbe. The idyllic community has always been something of a curiosity to outsiders; this production just exalts the whimsy.
Theater review
“Alice in Wonderland”
Grade: B+
11 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Through July 28. $10-$15. Serenbe Playhouse. On The Forest Glen Stage, behind Blue-Eyed Daisy Bakeshop, 9065 Selborne Lane, Chattahoochee Hills. 770-463-1110, serenbeplayhouse.com
Bottom line: Serenbe gets a curiously good twist on "Alice."
About the Author
