On Wednesday evening I also saw "Through the Looking Glass", at the Shop at Fort Fringe. The Shop is a small theater created by the Fringe staff & volunteers from an old storage room at the restaurant that became Fort Fringe. In case you wonder where it is, note that you must leave the ticket office and tents on NY Avenue & walk around to a separate entrance on L Street.
I really enjoyed this adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic book, created by Omniumgatherum of Reisterstown, Md. The cast is all female, and uses precisely choreographed movement, along with (mainly) Carroll's own words, to tell the story with a completely different emotional feel from what we have come to expect.
The piece certainly has a dreamlike feel, but the subtext seems far more threatening, sexual, and emotionally fraught than the whimsical children's story that inspired it. Alice remains herself through the whole piece, but the other 5 women transform scene by scene into different characters and objects.
It was not until after I had seen this piece and the operetta "Cox and Box" in one evening, that it occurred to me that the basic stories were written just a few years apart, both in England. But I could hardly imagine two more different theater experiences. Long live the Fringe!
If you would like to see more pictures of this production, click here.
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