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Halloween treat
at the Hipp
By Dick Maxwell, The Gainesville Sun
Well, it's that
time of year again. The orange and blue of
Gator football has been supplemented by the
orange of pumpkins; ghouls, ghosts and
goblins have started to appear in stores and
on some homes, and the Hippodrome is
presenting a thriller-chiller in honor of
Halloween and all things weird.
The past
several seasons have provided adaptations of
classics in the horror genre -
"Frankenstein" and a couple of "Draculas."
This year the fertile imagination of
director Lauren Caldwell has seized Anne
Coulter Marten's adaptation of "Alice In
Wonderland" and launched it like a mother
ship into the stratosphere of creative
impressionism with the result being a
theatrical experience that is bizarre but
never boring.
Most of you are
probably familiar with the story of little
Alice, a proper Victorian child who follows,
for some reason, a rabbit down a hole and
winds up in a place full of curious
creatures that don't make much sense. Many
of the characters you remember from your
childhood exposure to "Alice" are here: the
Cheshire cat, the Caterpillar, the obnoxious
Flowers and the Queen of Hearts, but they
don't look or act quite like your memory may
recall. In this adaptation of the classic
Lewis Carroll story the language is
reminiscent of the original but the
treatment by director Caldwell is unique and
adult. I think small children would be
totally confused by the show and probably
uncomfortable with what is happening;
teenagers and older ought to be able to
handle it. Apart from a few expletives and a
flash of bosoms, there isn't much that would
raise the eyebrows of the League of Decency.
What is really
distinctive about the Hipp's staging is the
use of choreography (staged by Judy
Skinner), lighting (Robert P. Robins) and
costumes (Marilyn A. Wall). The play has a
chorus of six women (Jennifer Anderson,
Elizabeth Arnold, Robyn Berg, Ryan Burbank,
Kate Kertez and Catherine Fries Vaughn) who
move to the accompaniment of rhythmic music.
The characters all move by gliding,
swooping, jerking and crawling, creating a
flow that adds a dimension of tension to the
piece making it far more interesting than
just having people walk from point A to
point B.
The costumes
are remarkable. The women in the chorus are
dressed in colorful flowing gowns that are
so versatile they can be twisted, tucked and
rearranged to serve a number of different
purposes. The costuming for the Queen of
Hearts is a sight to behold, as is the queen
herself played in his always-brilliant
fashion by Mark Chambers, who sports one of
the best pair of legs in the show.
Sara Morsey is
excellent as the ubiquitous Cheshire cat and
is able to produce the trademark smile.
Catherine Fries Vaughn is terrific as a
tap-dancing, trash-talking cupcake.
As Alice, Kelly
Atkins provides a stunning, highly
emotional, very physical performance as she
is subjected to various abuses at the hands
of the inhabitants of Wonderland. Her role
is extremely demanding and calls for almost
constant activity and stage presence on her
part during the 80-minute show, which is
performed without an intermission.
What makes this
an appropriate show for Halloween? In my
opinion the terror here is not from some
creature or alien presence, but from the
fact that Alice is insane. An event at the
beginning of the play may indicate that her
descent is not into a rabbit warren but into
madness. The characters with whom she must
interact but who say and do things that make
little or no sense to her smack of the
asylum. There is a lot more horror in the
loss of sanity and its consequences than is
found in the story of a man who turns into a
bat and goes out looking for young maidens
to bite.
"Alice in
Wonderland" works because the Hippodrome has
used its illusions and tricks to give us a
treat this Halloween. |
