A.R.T. and MXAT present “Alice vs. Wonderland”

Since its original publication in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have had an enduring and storied history that has taken the young English girl and her pedophilic creator from page to stage to screen and back again. From John Tenniel to Tim Burton, many have done what they could to bring new angles to this mind-tilting story. On Saturdays until October 9, 2010, the progressive team at the American Repertory Theatre, together with the students of the MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training, will take the latest stab, turning the story once more on its head by posing the no-longer-so-innocent Alice against the fantastical forces that she encounters on the other side of the famous rabbit hole.
Having been given the dual directives to “use music and make it awesome,” A.R.T. dramaturg and MXAT member Brendan Shea has creatively reworked the Alice story one more time. In what he calls a “surreal portrait of a teenage identity crisis,” Shea combines Carroll-ian ideas with contemporary cultural references.
“Wonderland, to me, represents the gauntlet each of us must go through on our way to adulthood,” Shea says. “Leaving childhood behind is not a happy dream, but a struggle. Carroll understood this, on some level. Each of the wacky characters Carroll created play a role in Alice's journey to self-realization.”
Using multiple actors to play Alice, Shea emphasizes the transitional elements of the original story and of the age in which Alice is growing up (or shrinking, as the case might be).
“Each [actor] evokes a different aspect of adolescence,” Shea says. “Together, they paint a surreal portrait of a teenage identity crisis.”
Having been previously performed in Moscow to great acclaim, Shea's adaptation offers an older Alice who must deal with the transition to adulthood as she also deals with the magical creatures she meets in Wonderland. While the basic structure of the story remains, each encounter is punctuated with pointed poems that poke fun at modern morals.
“Juxtaposing Alice with pop culture speaks the modern lingo,” Shea explains. “Today’s nursery rhymes are not transmitted by nanny but by TV, radio, or Youtube…This is why I call Alice vs. Wonderland not an adaptation, but a remix.”
Though Tim Burton’s recent film may introduced many to Wondeland, Shea suggests going back to the Disney original (or even the book!) to get the real Alice story.
“Most of us have a pre-existing relationship with these guys from our childhood,” he says. "’Alice vs. Wonderland’ takes these memories and associations and spins them in a different direction.”
“Alice vs. Wonderland”
runs Saturdays at 2 and 7 PM
(with a special student matinee
on September 22) at the Loeb
Drama Center (64 Brattle Street,
Cambridge). Tickets are $15
and can be purchased at www. AmericanRepertoryTheater. org DWN