The production of Alice Through the Looking Glass that opened at the Avon Theatre on Saturday afternoon is so filled with visual velocity and choreographic charm that our show business cousins up in Quebec had better look to their laurels.
Either that, or ask Jillian Keiley to direct and Bretta Gerecke to design their next production, as they have done so splendidly with this one.
Let be honest, the Entertainment slot that Stratford has been hawking for some time now is fraught with terrors. Some shows Cheap Womens Treinen Authentic Jerseys Cheap McCann Authentic Jerseys that charm the real youngsters bore the teens silly and perplex the parents, while others that mom and dad Cheap Wilson Rangers Jerseys enjoy find brother and sister swatting each other with programs before intermission.
But now for something completely different, as Monty Python would say, Cheap Youth Cheap Youth Pressly Game Jerseys Saltalamacchia Authentic Jerseys and in fact, this totally bizarre version of Alice Through the Looking Glass is like the child that the iconic British comedy www.hitchsters.com troupe might have conceived if they Cheap Womens Roach Montreal Canadiens Game Jerseys spent a wild Oakland Raiders night with Guy Lalibert and his merry Qu pranksters.
The script is by the late and venerable Cheap Kids Morris Jerseys James Reaney, based on Lewis Carroll oft adapted story of what happens when a girl Cheap Cheap Game Melancon Pirates Jerseys Kids Foltynewicz Elite Jerseys named Alice goes through a looking glass, down a rabbit hole, or any combination of the above.
At first, this version starts straight and a bit slowly, but once Trish Lindstr Alice (slightly off centre with a welcome touch of Amy Poehler about her) goes through Cheap Game Soria Tigers Jerseys the mirror, it anything goes and the devil take the hindmost.
At times, every member of the large cast, young and old, male and female are all dressed like photographic negatives of Alice: dark hair while hers is blond, Cheap Limited Rodney Kids Jerseys wearing blue pinafores dotted with white, whereas Alice wears white dotted with blue.
That simple to say, less simple to see, especially when the drag acts include Tom McCamus, Sanjay Talwar and Brian Tree, all of whom make very odd young women indeed.
Then there the younger men, like Tyrone Savage or Gareth Potter, who hold on to their handsome masculinity and let it shine through Cheap Red Sox Kelly Elite Jerseys the feminine Women Jerseys disguise. It Cheap Nike Bruce Youth Jerseys all strangely provocative.
But most of the time, it just fun. And it spectacular fun as the cast members use roller skates to move giant metal covered with a variety of spectacular objects to take us into that place truly known as Wonderland.
Just Cheap Elite McGee Youth Jerseys like a golden oldies radio Cheap Krol Elite Jerseys program, Cleveland Browns Jersey the hits keep a comin and I am loath to give away too Colorado Rockies many of the surprises that include cascading jelly beans, confetti cannons and gigantic foam letters that spell, of course, Cheap Womens Archer Jerseys A L I C E.
Yes, it a non stop riot, thanks to Keiley staging Cheap Youth Cordier Game Jerseys (assisted by Dayna Tekatch eclectic choreography), but now and then we actually pause to allow some of the familiar scenes from Carroll work to emerge, interpreted with total panache by the company.
You will be totally entranced by Cynthia Dale archly regal Red Queen, sending up sky high all the glamour pusses she ever played at Stratford, or Brian Tree magnificently find out here now sour Humpty Dumpty, sprinkling a fine mist of malt vinegar pessimism on the fish and chips comedy of his character.
You won be able to get cheap jerseys cheap" title="basketball jersey cheap" /> enough of the Tweedledum of Mike Nadajewski, collapsing on stage repeatedly like a narcoleptic rag doll, or his partner, the Tweedledee of Sanjay Talwar, who keeps running in circles like a dog chasing its tail, Cheap Youth Kershaw Nike Jerseys both of them delivering the ooziest North Country accents you ever heard.
And mention must, must, must be made of Cheap Elite Clark Brewers Jerseys the one and only Tom McCamus, whose March Hare has droopy eyes any basset hound Cheap Nike Avila Womens Jerseys would envy and whose narrator is briskly wheeled onto the stage in an armchair for a parody of Masterpiece Theatre to deliver the richest version of you ever heard.
To be totally honest, not every one of the characterizations works, but those lapses are few and far between, and the beautiful thing about Keiley production is that it like Vancouver weather: if you don like it, wait five minutes and it will change.
You know that much abused phrase: for children of all ages? This smashing production of Alice Through the Looking Glass truly deserves it. If you don know a child, rent one for the afternoon and go see this show.