Classic tale in the spotlight

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This article was published 18/12/2019 (2364 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Children of all ages, eager of eye and willing of ear, are sure to delight in the latest from Merlyn Productions.

Starting Dec. 26, Merlyn Productions will bring Through the Looking-Glass (And What Alice Found There) to the stage at the Forrest Nickerson Theatre (285 Pembina Hwy.). The production features a cast of local performers, including three from northeast Winnipeg.

“I’m honestly very excited,” said Jensen Glover, a 17-year-old River East Collegiate student who is playing Alice. “It’s been coming along well. It’s going to be fun.”

While this is Glover’s first lead role, she has been involved with Merlyn Productions for the past five years and is a graduate of the Winnipeg Theatre School.

“(Alice) is a very young girl, but she’s very intelligent,” Glover said of her role. “Wise beyond her years. She handles everything very logically.”

Based closely on Lewis Carroll’s novel, which was a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Jim Geisel’s adaptation for the stage follows Alice as she makes her way across a chess board after falling into a world “through the looking glass.”

“She meets a variety of very interesting and largely unhelpful characters,” Glover explained, adding that audiences who take in the show will be “in for a very fun hour of lighthearted adventure.”

Local theatre and Merlyn Productions veterans Tim and Xiam Webster, a married couple who call the Elmwood/East Kildonan area home, agreed that Through the Looking-Glass is as enjoyable an hour of theatre as folks can expect over the holidays.

“There are a lot of fun characters,” said Tim, who plays the Engine-Driver, a character Alice encounters on the “third square” of her journey. “It is a very authentic interpretation, right down to the chess pieces moving on the board. It’s tightly choreographed.”

“It’s a lot of fun,” added Xiam, who plays the grown up Alice Liddell, a historical figure who acts as the narrator to the play. “The characters are vibrant and fun. It should be a fun experience, especially for young people who have never seen a play.”

Throughout the course of the play, as with the novel upon which it is based, a game of chess unfolds. Xiam, who grew up in Windsor Park, noted that while the audience doesn’t need to know the rules of chess to follow along, those who do may get a little something extra out of the story.

“I have found subtext within the chess game itself, and that has been really fun,” she said.

For the Websters, the opportunity to act together on stage is a rare one that they’re both enjoying.

“It’s not very often we have a show where we’re performing together, so that’s a fun aspect of that for me,” Tim said.

“We used to do plays together all the time, but just the way our schedules have been, one of us would be director and the other actors,” Xiam added. “It’s so nice to be actors together. It’s something special for us, and I’m enjoying it.”

Through the Looking-Glass runs from Dec. 26 to Dec. 30 at the Forrest Nickerson Theatre. Showtimes for the Dec. 26, 27 and 30 shows is 7 p.m., while the Dec. 28 and 29 shows are 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $12, with group rates available for 10 tickets or more. To purchase tickets, visit merlyn.biz or call 204-415-2714.

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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