BWW Reviews: THE MISSING PAGES OF LEWIS CARROLL - A Sturdy Mounting of a Subject Some Might Rather Not Know
By: Gil Kaan Feb. 02, 2015
The Missing Pages of Lewis Carroll/written by Lily Blau/directed by Abigail Deser/The Theatre @ Boston Court/thru March 1, 2015
Playwright Lily Blau receives a strong mounting of her world premiere The Missing Pages of Lewis Carroll at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Director Abigail Deser glides her able cast through what Blau has imagined would be in the missing pages of author Lewis Carroll's actual diaries.
Charles Dodgson (nom de plume Lewis Carroll) teaches mathematics at Oxford. A hobbyist photographer, Dodgson befriends Oxford Dean Henry Liddell and his family. Dodgson offers to photograph the Liddell daughters after their scheduled photographer took leave. The charismatic Dodgson strikes up a beguiling relationship with the three daughters; 8-year-old Edith, 10-year-old Ina, and especially 11-year-old Alice. Dean Liddell and his wife Lorina welcome the attention Dodgson dotes on their daughters inviting him to numerous family outings. It's amidst these outings that Dodgson starts writing "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," basing his titular character on the 11-year-old he's getting very close with. Yes, Missing Pages does go there and some may question why the need to go there.
Leo Marks IS Charles Dodgson, stuttering, hesitating, awkward, inappropriately sexual-all! Marks' Dodgson charms and flatters the Liddell females while having enough education and smarts to win over Professor Liddell. Time Winters' perfectly scholarly and patriarchic as Dean Liddell. Erica Hanrahan-Ball gives Mrs. Liddell the proper upper crust attitude and posturing of a woman wed to a man in position. (And her many gowns stun! Many thumbs up to costume designer Garry Lennon!)
Erin Barnes as Ina and Ashley Ruth Jones as Edith both give adroit support as the mischievous siblings. As Caroll's muse and Dodgson's object of affection, Corryn Cummins' the ideal sparring partner for Marks as they zing back and forth in their compliments, their combined (though age-differentiated levels of) innocence and, eventually suggestive remarks/actions. Relatively easy to suspend belief that the grown-up Cummins (and Barnes and Jones) play the three pubescent daughters. Casting the three little girl roles with three grown-up actresses also makes it easier to digest/ignore what playwright Blau's really depicting.
Jeff Marlow, wonderfully costumed in rabbit ears, delightfully serves as Dodgson's inner voice (as any good rabbit should). Although Marlow's credited with four different roles, his White Rabbit costume never comes off. So the "other" roles come off as just the White Rabbit talking (still effective).
Visuals of this production wow with Stephen Gifford's set of 1880-period drawing room transforming from a conservative mathematics professor's lodgings into the gateway of a beautiful garden filled with greenery and an ever present roped swing. Kudos to Keith Skretch's down-the-rabbit-hole video projections and Jaymi Lee Smith's complementary inside/outside, realistic/fantasy lighting design.
Once all involved realize the actual nature of Dodgson's relationship with Alice and a separation imposed, subsequent scenes leading to the finale could easily be trimmed without affecting this disturbing Missing Pages.
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