No Humpty Dumpty
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Company members mentioned in this article: David Catlin, Lauren Hirte, Anthony Fleming III, Doug Hara, Tony Hernandez, Larry DiStasi and Mara Blumenfeld by Naomi Siegel Bless the McCarter Theatre Center for importing "Lookingglass Alice" from Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company to Princeton. David Catlin took Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" and "Alice in Wonderland" and forged them into a show that's part play, part circus. All the familiar characters are here: The Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, Humpty Dumpty, Queens both Red and White -- and, of course, Alice, played with delightful fresh-scrubbed innocence by Lauren Hirte. Hirte doesn't just sit around while phantasmagorical events occur around her. She does a number of startling gymnastic feats on a hoop high above stage. Then the diminutive miss must hold a grown man in her arms, and carry another on her shoulders. She isn't required, however, to carry the whole show on those shoulders. The other cast members each play at least a half-dozen roles. Anthony Fleming III, Doug Hara and Tony Hernandez move together beautifully to make the Caterpillar seem like a single unit, but the way they speak and sound as if they're one voice may be an even bigger achievement. Larry DiStasi has many amusing moments as both the frustrated White Queen and the loquacious White Knight. These performers, too, must endure physical tests that would place many of us in month-long traction. They unicycle and march across 16 folding chairs that could trip up even the most expert jogger. What Catlin has devised could oxymoronically be described as highly disciplined anarchy. How he engineers Humpty Dumpty's great fall is breathtakingly staged and bravely executed. Yet Catlin hasn't neglected the whimsy in the text. Carroll's clever wordplay is here, especially in a delicious pun that involves an eggplant. It all takes place on a mostly bare stage, though it's soon littered with eggs, folding chairs and a sheaf of papers. To make Alice small after her "Drink Me" adventure, everything becomes oversized, including a ball of yarn bigger than any discovered in the Collier Brothers' apartment. Sometimes Mara Blumenfeld's costumes are simple; a couple of rabbit ears stuck into a bowler hat does it for the March Hare. Other times, she gets elaborate; one officious queen is clad in a luxurious blood red dress that measures about half the height of the stage. One could call this "experimental theater," but that term doesn't do justice to Catlin. After all, "experimental" suggests a trial-and-error process that's still continuing. Catlin has already experimented and succeeded. At Friday's opening, the audience was applauding more frequently than they do at a hit Broadway musical. There, they're programmed to clap because a song has ended; here, the astounding feats made them spontaneously burst into applause. During the curtain calls, many "Ahhhhed!" -- astonished to see that only four men had been backing up Alice. Weren't there at least a dozen entering and exiting with such ease? Even the seating arrangement is atypical. Attendees will be placed in the orchestra or balcony, or ensconced in one of 150 seats on stage. Good thing Catlin's staging allows for extra seats. They'll be needed to accommodate the hordes who'll rush to see this amazing production. |
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