Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll’s famous book about a young girl’s misadventures in a fantasy world, has been adapted as several different movies and plays. Arguably, the most well-known, is the animated Disney feature from 1951. Now, Raider Theater has taken their own swing at the play.
The plot follows Alice (Lidia León) as she sees the White Rabbit (Kamron Neville) and follows him down the rabbit hole. After that, she meets all of the characters in Wonderland while trying to find the rabbit. Eventually, she meets the Red Queen (Hannah Hopfer) and King ( Donovan Scott). Also mixed into the storyline were dance numbers. The first was done by a group of flowers and the next by a set of cards from the Queen of Hearts later in the play. My personal favorite scenes were when Alice met the flowers and, of course, the tea party. The scene with the flowers is entertaining, because we see not only the flowers (Chardonnay Reed, Josh Hare, Teyha Heidelberg, Kristina Hung, Elizabeth Bollan) attacking Alice, but her firing back a bit as well. The tea party was quite fun. The interactions between the Mad Hatter (Tarik Johnson), the March Hare, (Amanda Chara) and the Dormouse (Meg Le) were great.
All of the performers, from the Caterpillars (Eden Solomon, Jordan Rosa and Celeste Molano), to the Knave of Hearts (Denis Morales) played their parts with such energy I thoroughly believed that they were the characters. My favorite performer was the Cheshire Cat (Dorothy Schroy). Her performance was amazing to watch, especially the scene where she argues with Alice. Another great performance was by the Red Queen. With the Red Queen’s temper going off and the amount of yelling required, I think Hopfer’s voice was best suited for the Red Queen. The Queen’s costume, along with the King’s, was the best designed. I loved the dress and combination of gold and red. All of the characters were adorned with colorful costumes that in their own way blended with the set design.
I would recommend watching Raider Theater to others. The play was very entertaining, hilarious and nicely put together. Although there were times the humor didn’t match up with my dry and sarcastic sense, it were an easy plot to follow. If you did not attend this magnificent play, you missed out.