Wondrous worlds collide in 'Alice'
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Company members mentioned in this article: David Catlin, Lauren Hirte, Larry DiStasi, Anthony Fleming III, Doug Hara, Tony Hernandez, Mara Blumenfeld, Daniel Ostling and Chris Binder by Hedy Weiss It may be for just these reasons that the members of the Lookingglass Theatre ensemble have returned to Lewis Carroll's Victorian era classic more than once during their history. And while I missed their earliest versions, I can attest to the marvelous flights of fancy, athletic enchantment, visual pleasures -- the sheer goofiness and even the subtle whiff of wistfulness -- that permeate their wildly imaginative new "Lookingglass Alice." Superbly adapted and directed by David Catlin, it opened over the weekend at Lookingglass' Water Tower Water Works home. Catlin is really the first director who has found a way to utilize all the special features designed into the Water Tower space -- its towering ceiling, its deep traps and its fitness for complex rigging. In addition, he has found a way to exploit all aspects of Carroll's storytelling and nonsense poetry -- tapping its lyricism, playfulness, elusive braininess and seductive sense of disorientation. Bridging the worlds of childhood and adulthood, it evokes that strange instability that comes with the move from innocence to experience. The tipoff to just how ingenious and engaging Catlin's "Lookingglass Alice" will turn out to be comes early on -- after the audience has filed into the darkness to find that they are seated on either side of a black hole of sorts. Hanging stage center is a large gilded mirror, and before we know it, Alice (the utterly beguiling, multitalented Lauren Hirte) and her creator, Charles Dodgson (a k a Lewis Carroll, played here by Lawrence E. DiStasi), cross into each other's worlds. A creative thunderclap occurs. And with one great sweep of a curtain all the mechanics of a stage are laid bare and the instruments of invention set in motion for Alice's journey of self-discovery. In addition to Hirte (a tiny, beautiful, tremendously strong gymnast with a breathtaking mastery of aerial ballet skills and a natural acting style that makes Alice's innocence seem entirely genuine), it is up to a team of four actors, working like Olympic relay racers, to portray the entire population of Wonderland. You may remember Anthony Fleming III best as the coolest Cheshire Cat ever; Tony Hernandez as a forbidding Queen of Hearts (and taller than a Trump spire when perched on stilts); DiStasi as the wackiest of all unicycle-riding White Knights, and Doug Hara as a Humpty Dumpty who takes such a staggeringly dangerous fall that you can only rejoice that Northwestern Hospital is just a block away. And they are just as adept at becoming human croquet balls or a caterpillar. The splendor of Dan Ostling's set design, Mara Blumenfeld's invariably brilliant costumes, Chris Binder's dazzling lights, and a galvanic crew greatly enhance the storytelling (which might benefit from a 10-minute trim). But this trip down the rabbit hole is nothing short of "brillig." |
More from Lookingglass Alice (Chicago 2005) |
