WONDERLAND takes place at the intersection of Alice in Wonderland and Blade Runner. It asks what it means to go down the rabbit hole, and looks at the mystery and terror of childhood in a post-apocalyptic world. The ability to improvise is essential for survival and the rules of the game are unknown to the players.
The set, by Mark Nayden, is a wall which gives the appearance of a billboard or tent, with images stretched taut on copper pipe. The colors are brilliant and playful, but the images of bodies and text are dark. The music by Deirdre Broderick creates a shifting and powerful sonic landscape. Costumes by Christine Joly de Lotbinniere are beautifully painted, and look as if they have been eaten by acid, or rescued from a rubble heap and re-assembled with decadent elegance. The dancers, who are also vocalists and actors, are major collaborators in the process.
Throughout, there is a recurrent theme of yearning for home, for place, for relationship and community finally is realized at the end in a powerful, theatrical climax.
Commissioned by Jacob's Pillow in partnership with Dance Umbrella of Boston and The Flynn Theater, Burlington, VT
photo by Pam White
photo by Pam White
photo by NIck Novick
photo by Nick Novick