April 16, 08

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll’s timeless tale with a New Age twist

By Dan Hudak

Alice in Wonderland

You may know the story, but rest assured you’ve never seen an Alice like this.

Writer/director Stephanie Ansin has cleverly tapped into the mind-twisting nature of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by using eclectic music and video projections to create a surreal, postmodern feel to Lewis Carroll’s timeless tale, now at The PlayGround Theatre in Miami Shores.

Ansin and co-writer Fernando Calzadilla have taken Alice (Kristen Dawn McCorkell) from her Victorian England origins and made her a local girl from Miami, but the story elements remain the same: She follows a rabbit (Marjorie O’Neill-Butler) down a hole, shrinks, grows, cries a pool of tears, has fun in a Caucus race, gets angry at the Mad Hatter (Jeff Keogh) and is nearly beheaded at the behest of the Queen of Hearts (Melissa Almaguer).

Ansin’s New Age interpretation is enough to keep adults interested while also being perfectly appropriate for kids; at a recent Tuesday morning performance for Miami-Dade schoolchildren, the youngsters were dancing in their seats and laughing out loud. Just don’t expect Disney-like warm, fuzzy sweetness.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderful is showing through May 4 at The PlayGround Theatre, 9806 N.E. Second Avenue, Miami Shores; 305-751-9550 or theplaygroundtheatre.com.