As we hunkered down to make the best of enhanced family time and/or solitude, The Firehouse Theater came to our rescue with Taylor Mercado Owens’ Curiouser. Directed by Olivia Grace Murphy, Curiouser is a smart and quirky gloss on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, conceived as a Zoom Class, with all the constraints and opportunities that venue implies. The brainchild of a Master Class offered by Firehouse, Curiouser finds us in the midst of Ms. Selmon’s English Class, where the students are up in arms, because they’re expected to process the Lewis Carroll classic, despite the way it flagrantly flouts comprehensible narrative. It doesn’t make any sense! they wail, as their dedicated teacher tries to explain that perhaps this is the point.
Alicia, one of the more engaged scholars, defends Selmon’s choice before she dozes off, waking to discover she’s adrift in Alice’s same predicament. Familiar scenario’s emerge. She’s trapped in a room too large and too small, she queries a contentious (though jovial) Cheshire Cat, she attends a tea-party with guests such as The Dormouse, The Mad Hatter and The March Hare. And wouldn’t you know, each one of these strange characters bear a resemblance to Alicia’s classmates. They have lost their grasp of even the most undeniable details of the actual. Sound familiar?
Director Murphy (who brings an impressive list of credits) shows great facility in adapting Owen’s adaptation to the nether realm of the Zoom Platform. The young cast of Curiouser makes this story their own, bringing their personal traits to the production, under the skillful guidance of Ms. Murphy. Curiouser was delightful and filled with ingenuity, shaping Carroll’s twilight zone to a plot that perhaps might alleviate our shared predicament, if only we can can roll with ourongoing challenges, resisting frustration and perplexity.
Cast: Alicia: Marla Acevedo, Teacher/ Storyteller: Holli Selmon, Rabbit/ Duck/ #3/ Knave: Karl Lewis, Caterpillar/ Student 1/ Door 1/ #5: Savannah Elayyach, Cheshire Cat/ Student 2/ Door 2: Patrick Bilbow, March Hare/ Cake/ #7: Jenna Williamson, Mad Hatter/ Bottle/ #9: Brenna Stewart, Dormouse/ Door 3/ Dodo: Lyric Knight, Queen/ Student 3/ Pigeon: Tonya Wilson Shaw, King/ Student 4/ Mouse: Quentin Maese.