Review of Lookingglass Alice at Lookingglass Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Lookingglass Alice. It was adapted and directed by David Catlin and it was from the works of Lewis Carroll. It was about a girl named Alice (Lauren Hirte) who went through the looking glass and met her friend Charles Dodgson (Samuel Taylor). And she went through amazing crazy adventures. Like she met a Cheshire Cat (Anthony Fleming III) who was very crazy and then she met the Red Queen (Molly Brennan) who was also very crazy and wanted everything her own way. And she also met a Mad Hatter (Kevin Douglas) and a March Hare (Fleming) and a Dormouse (Brennan). And when she met all these mad people, they were all saying she was mad. But we all know that everyone is a little bit insane. So it is sort of about insanity and what defines insane and what is just a fun person. I think it is also about the friendship between Mr. Dodgson and Alice and how she wants to become an adult and how Mr. Dodgson doesn't want her to grow up because he feels like he is losing her. I really really liked this show. I had so much fun and it is a great adaptation. And the circus elements were just mind blowing!

I really loved the White Knight (Taylor). I thought he was one of the sanest people who lived there. And I also loved the acrobatic tricks where Alice and the White Knight did moving backbends with two people. And I really liked the part with the handkerchief when the White Knight gives Alice the handkerchief to wave because he thinks it will encourage him. And then close to the end she gives it to Mr. Dodgson, who also played the White Knight, and tells him to wave the handkerchief that the White Knight gave to her to encourage her to go down her rabbit hole. I thought that it was very sweet. She needs encouragement because she is leaving all the friends she found here and she's going back to where she came from and will probably never see them again. His cycling was also hilarious. I really liked it when his "trusty steed" (also known as his bicycle) fell apart in front of his eyes because he just came out with this roar like, "No! My steed!" and he gathered up all the bicycle parts and left. And then when he came back on he was on like the tallest unicycle ever. I think they want you to think that he had to reassemble his horse as a unicycle--maybe it was a unicorn!

Humpty Dumpty's (Douglas) scene was insane! I don't want to ruin how it ends, but I'll tell you a little bit. The eggplants that they plant earlier have to do with it! I really liked how Humpty Dumpty seemed like a slightly insane sweetheart. And he was also a grammar professor it seemed because he explains the first verse of the Jaberwocky poem to her. He explains the poem to her word by word, and even though it makes no sense at all he makes it seem like it makes sense. He is a very fragile egg; his emotions crack whenever Alice says something even slightly rude to him. I thought his performance was poached perfectly! (That is such a bad joke. I hope you think it is funny.)

The Cheshire Cat was scary but also funny. He was slightly crazy but he also seemed sane because he helped Alice in every step of her journey--unlike the Mad Hatter and March Hare who just basically had a very very strange tea party. He was scary because he was very muscular and cracks his neck and smiles this blood-curdling smile. And you thought, if he jumped down from where he is above me, I will probably die. But then he is also funny because he makes up these crazy puns and stuff and he just walks away, like, she'll understand that purr-fectly. And he was also looking at naked pictures of cats, which was kind of funny because it just basically looked like a cat, because cats don't usually wear outfits or sunglasses or hats for cats!

The caterpillar scene was really cool. I liked how the caterpillar was made up of three people (Brennan, Douglas, and Fleming) and they had to move and talk and sing at the exact same time. I thought that must have been a lot of work for them. They must have had to go to a lot of rehearsals where they just had to say the exact same things like androids. I thought the movement was really crazy. Sometimes they would just be walking but sometimes they were flipping and jumping and that was really awesome. Sometimes they are flipping and jumping like one person! And then some of the time they were on top of each other and still walking!

The queens were crazy! The Red Queen's costumes (Mara Blumenfeld with Alison Siple) were amazing! Like one of them was as tall as the building basically and one of them, the one in the umbrella, was as small as baby's skirt. I thought that Molly Brennan did a great job being the mean person that the Red Queen is supposed to be but also being slightly lovable because she also seemed kind of like how a toddler acts. Like a toddler can be kind of grabby, but you have to love a toddler because they are so cute and stuff like that. You are just like, "That's okay. That's just what they want. I get it." I also really liked the White Queen (Taylor), and the white queen's part I am going to write backwards, in honor of her. .saw retcarahc eht yaw eht gnignahc ton elihw retcarahc eht fo ega eht gnignahc boj taerg a did eh thguoht I ?msinagro dellec-elgnis a otni nrut ehs lliw rO .niaga gniga trats tsuj ehs lliw ,won ybab a si ehs fI .txen eb lliw ehs tahw rednow i dna ybab a si neeuQ etihW eht ,dne eht yB .looc yrev saw thguoht I hcihw ,sdrawkcab sega neeuQ etihW ehT

I really liked the ball sequence where they all had giant balloon balls and yoga balls that they were bouncing around. And they would bounce them into the audience, which I thought was very cool. But the best part of all was when Alice put the ball between her legs and balls in each of her hands and started spinning around and around, basically doing backflips on the rope. And I don't know how she didn't get dizzy!

People who would like this show are people who like awesome ball dance sequences, sdrawkcab gniga sneeuq, and egg grammar professors. I think that people should definitely definitely go see this show. I had so much fun. The acrobatics were amazing, the acting was amazing, and it was very heartwarming and bittersweet.

Photos: Liz Lauren