[caption id="attachment_43948" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Tweedle Dee (Anita Boyer), Mad Hatter (Anthony D'Alessio) and White Rabbit (Hanna Medler). Photo by Dorota Jemielita.[/caption]
By Annette Hinkle
Let’s face it — as a writer, Lewis Carroll was amazingly creative. But he was also pretty out there, and while his best-known work, “Alice in Wonderland,” is quirky and full of entertaining interactions, it lacks a cohesive plot and any semblance of character transformation. So while “Alice in Wonderland” may be an entertaining piece of literature, it almost always makes for an unsatisfying theatrical experience.
Fortunately, here on the East End we have Anita Boyer and Kasia Klimiuk, two talented tappers who are performers and dance teachers in their own right. Through their production company, Our Fabulous Variety Show, they are currently offering a staged version of Alice at Guild Hall that takes all those preconceived notions of community theater and turns it on its rabbit ear.
“Our Adventures in Wonderland” is Alice with a twist, and a variety show in the truest sense of the word. A well-conceived marriage of music, dancing and acting, the piece is populated by a cast of local adult actors who perform alongside dance students of all ages and skill levels and the teachers who train them at East Hampton’s Dancehampton and the Royalenova Performing Arts in Center Moriches.
Yes, truth be told, this version of “Alice in Wonderland” is a dance recital at heart. But it’s a most cleverly-disguised one and even those who don’t have a child in the show will find much to love in this story of a wayward girl who goes down a rabbit hole.
With contemporary music and references to very current events (including swipes at both Common Core and the front running Republican presidential candidate) this rendition of Alice is not only charming – it’s also smart and sassy with an edginess that will leave you saying, “Now this is the way to do it.”
[caption id="attachment_43949" align="alignnone" width="500"]
The March Hare (Joe Brondo). Photo by Dorota Jemielita.[/caption]
Ms. Boyer and Ms. Klimiuk lead the way with their direction as well as with their tap dancing in the roles of the Tweedles (Dee and Dum respectively) where they function as narrators and set changers. Their version of the story starts in Wonderland which, sadly, is no longer living up to its name. All the wonderfulness has been eradicated since Bianca, the nasty White Queen (Lee Michel) took over as ruler of the place. Color and creativity have been effectively outlawed, along with any exploration of imagination (a dirty word in Wonderland). Young children dress in white uniforms and spend their dreary mind-numbing days with the White Queen reciting lessons listlessly in the classroom and rejecting anything (or anyone) that hints at original thinking.
Among them is Alice (Tori Schmitt), a young girl who doesn’t remember Wonderland when it was wonderful. She forgets her uniform regularly and can’t conform to the White Queen’s societal expectations no matter how hard she tries.
Poor Alice is always getting into trouble because her fertile imagination is always getting out of hand —it’s just in her nature, as we soon learn. Since the White Queen’s take-over, Alice’s real peeps, including her brother the Mad Hatter (Tony D’Alessio) and his husband the March Hare (Joe Brondo), have been hiding out in Underland where they are still able to revel in their irrepressible idiosyncrasies and propensity toward silliness.
It’s from Underworld, that the Ace of Spades (Kristen Curie) commands White Rabbit (Hanna Medler) and her platoon of rebel rabbits (Georgia Hren, Claire Krauss and Lianna Cangin). The bunnies dress in camouflage pants and wear identical rabbit ears and it’s their job it is to “tail” Alice above ground, report on her movements and lure her down to Underland in an effort to overthrow the White Queen. Their military-like precision is hilarious, especially when the order is given to “bounce,” and they all turn in unison to hop off stage or up the center aisle of the theater.
The basic plot line of the show is complicated by the fact that time travel turns out to be a key element of the story and the device on which the action turns. Early in the play, the White Rabbit gives Alice a watch which enables her to go forward and backward in time. We soon learn that, as a young girl (Eden Lowlicht), the bitter White Queen was in love with the Mad Hatter (Thomas Sulfaro), but her romantic overtures were rebuked because he only had eyes for the March Hare (Vincent DiMaria). With the watch, we also take a trip back to a ‘70s-era classroom where we find a hippy caterpillar (Peter Nolan) wearing a tie dyed shirt and crazy wig as he espouses the beauty of creativity and free thinking.
But that’s the past — time travel also allows us to see how Alice’s future will play out if she doesn't escape the conformity of the White Queen’s oppressive Wonderland. In this scenario, an older Alice (Kayla Angona) appears as a contestant in a beauty pageant in which the loud-mouthed and orange-hued Walrus (Joe Brondo) channels Donald Trump as the pageant’s emcee. After making it clear that she has a bright future as someone’s wife and mother, Alice responds to one of Trump’s pageant questions with incoherent rambling, apparently referencing the abysmal performance of one contestant in the Miss Teen USA pageant a few years ago (it’s infamous and readily available on YouTube, if you like train wrecks).
Ultimately, it’s this sort of subtle satire and thinly veiled references to pop culture, celebrity icons and societal expectations that make “Our Adventures in Wonderland” a wildly different sort of community theater offering. You also can’t help but love the fact that in this show, the kids act like adults and the adults act like children.
[caption id="attachment_43950" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Alice (Tori Schmitt) with the White Queen (Lee Michel) and the Tweedles (Kasia Klimiuk and Anita Boyer). Photo by Dorota Jemielita.[/caption]
And in the end, Alice has a message — it’s all about female empowerment and staying true to oneself, which makes this show ideal for the little girls in the troupe who are owning the stage with their attitude and confidence. Dance numbers, whether straight up ballet or cutting edge hip-hop, are packed with high energy and performed to a diverse slate of music, from classic to contemporary. Pink Floyd’s “Time” from Dark Side of the Moon is in here, as is the Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” Also included is the delightfully dated “Alice in Wonderland” number from the 1951 movie, along with Beyoncé’s funky “Who Rules the World (Girls)” and even “The Hanging Tree” from the movie “Mockingjay” (if that doesn’t send a strong message about female empowerment, what does?). Kudos also goes to Sebastian Pacyznski for his over the top professional lighting which seriously raises the “barre” — taking dance recital to a whole new level.
“Our Adventures in Wonderland” runs this weekend at Guild Hall (158 Main Street, East Hampton) with shows on Friday and Saturday, September 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, September 27 at 2 p.m. Proceeds from the show benefit Human Understanding & Growth Services, Inc. (HUGS), an East End organization that offers workshops targeting the concerns of youth, parents and community members while promoting healthy life choices for youth and strategies to reduce risky behavior.
on Sep 22, 2015