Arts & Culture

Gateway Theatre’s 2021-2022 season closes with the B.C. premiere of “In Wonderland”, based on Lewis Carroll’s stories about Alice.

Photo by Ben Laird

Alice’s adventures feature in play’s B.C. premiere

By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Published 12:31 PDT, Thu March 31, 2022

Last Updated: 3:34 PDT, Mon April 18, 2022

—

A familiar story to many, Alice’s adventures through Wonderland will come to life at Gateway Theatre in April.

The upcoming show In Wonderland, which features just three actors, was commissioned by Alberta Theatre Projects and opened in Calgary late last year. This will be its B.C. premiere.

“It’s a particularly rich and whimsical retelling of this story, something new to discover at every turn,” says director Haysam Kadri. “There’s a modern sensibility to a classic story.”

Kadri adds that while the play is faithful to Lewis Carroll’s novels, it narrows its focus on Alice’s quest for agency.

“She’s consistently working through her problems, finding personal strengths as she strives to find her voice,” he says. “Personal growth is a metaphor, but (there’s) also a literal representation as she’s shrinking and growing and shrinking and growing.”

The opportunity to present the show a second time, with a few months in between to “simmer,” is exciting for Kadri. It offers a new perspective and the chance to discover and explore new elements.

“When you’re working with it, it’s trial and error,” he says. “The heavy lifting is done now—we know what works and we know what doesn’t. We’re able to navigate those challenges a little bit better now, and looking forward to experimenting with some different things here and there.”

Despite the show’s youthful protagonist and child-friendly focus, Kadri doesn’t want to approach it as just for young audiences. It attracted viewers of all ages when presented in Calgary.

And while in-person theatre productions are now possible again, Kadri says the backdrop of COVID-19 fits with the disorienting feeling of the show. The show also aims to fulfill the appetite many people have for escape.

“The confusion around time translates to that same feeling during the pandemic—a lot of times I didn’t know what month it was, what day it was,” he says. “It’s really streamlined, it’s quick, it’s impulsive, it’s energetic, it’s all those kinds of things distilled in a two-hour show.”

When working with lengthy source material, playwright Anna Cummer was strategic about which characters to keep—the Mad Hatter and the Caterpillar, for instance—to ensure familiarity.

“In the development process, it started very linear to the novel and then we started to move away from it. We started to add a little more flair, a little more modern context,” says Kadri.

“I think it’s really exciting to tell a story about a young girl and her personal growth and watching her adventures. I hope that the Richmond audience will see that and enjoy that part of it.”

In Wonderland plays at Gateway Theatre from April 7 to 16, closing Gateway’s 2021-2022 season. For more information and tickets, click here.