Reflecting these topsy-turvy times, Gateway Theatre is presenting the BC premiere of In Wonderland from April 7-16th, to close its 2021-2022 season. The imaginative and contemporary retelling of Lewis Carroll’s classic novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, is told with only three actors, Sarah Roa, Natascha Girgis (Nine Dragons, 2019), and Graham Percy, portraying all the story’s iconic characters and transforming right before the eyes of the audience.
onstage at Gateway Theatre April 7-16, 2022
photo: Ben Laird
Directed by Haysam Kadri, the magic of the theatre will appear before audiences through projections, extraordinary scenic elements, lighting illusions and shadows, costumes, and puppetry, which all play a vital role in the storytelling. Audiences of all ages will be drawn into a dazzling world of imagination, absurdity, and abstraction, which will transfix them throughout a wild, and sometimes outrageous world of Wonderland.
Commissioned by Alberta Theatre Projects, playwright Anna Cummer was inspired to create In Wonderland after reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with her children. Carroll’s fantastical, whimsical world was a welcome escape for them. Cummer presented her vision of the story as a variety show with everything from clown acts to musical numbers, complete with slap-stick and poetry. Each scene becomes a fast-paced vignette tied together by the aesthetics and performance style of Vaudeville, sure to entertain and delight both children and adults.
“We follow a young girl navigating the topsy-turvy world of social interactions and skirting the edges of adulthood,” said Cummer, who wrote In Wonderland as a coming-of-age story. This angle makes the tale more timeless and relevant.
“Carroll’s novels have not faded in the slightest by time,” said director Haysam Kadri. “Alice’s adventures will continue to intrigue us for countless years to come, and the story fittingly taps into the disorienting feelings of pandemic living: the bizarre dreams, the confusion around time, appetite for escape, and perpetual anxiety. There’s no better parallel in time to tell this story.”
Gateway Theatre’s 2021-2022 Season comes to an end with In Wonderland, onstage April 7-16, 2022, with a Pay What You Will preview performance, April 7th for specific organizations. Limited capacity, distanced seating is still in effect at Gateway Theatre for the remainder of this season. For details, showtimes and tickets visit gatewaytheatre.com/wonderland