Alice-By-The-Fire
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Wigell, Mills
Photo by Keith Stevenson
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By Ben Miles
Alice By-The-Fire is a play that just won't grow up. Still staged in three-acts, with the traditional two ten-minute intermissions, the show is mandated by its structure and essential elements to remain forever as it was when initially scripted, in 1905, by J.M. Barrie. It was in the previous year that Barrie created his master-fantasy, Peter Pan. Through its various theatrical and cinematic permutations, Pan has become a perennial international favorite, and Barrie has ever since been a dramaturgic and literary legend. Indeed, Barrie's long-lived influence and formidable talent in the arts-of-language were again paid homage in the acclaimed film Finding Neverland. Movie-idol Johnny Depp performed credibly as Barrie in that 2004 Academy Award-nominated project.
Now, audiences have a rare opportunity to enjoy this lesser known, post-Pan play from Barrie's imaginative canon. In production at the Pacific Resident Theatre, in Venice, Alice Sit-By-The-Fire is a hybrid comedy concoction laced in Victorian societal conceits and mixed with richly sketched, Mark Twain-like characterizations. Through narration provided by The Playwright himself (Orson Bean is crisp and commanding as the emcee and Barrie surrogate), we are introduced to this likely scenario: Colonel Robert Grey (Bruce French in fine military-man-reunites-with-family form) and his seemingly devoted wife, Alice (a delightfully expressive Alley Mills), return to London from assignment in colonial India.
The couple's children--teenage Amy (the endearingly cherubic Betty Wigell); young sea-cadet Cosmo (a loveably lanky Miles Marsico); and a newly arrived gurgling, cooing infant girl, whom we hear in full baby-babble glory (thanks to designer Keith Stevenson's spot-on sound simulations) but never actually see--have been without the presence of their loyal-to-the-royals parents for five years. The offspring have been supervised in the meantime by a live-in family caretaker known only as Nurse (Judith Montgomery in a winningly eccentric portrayal).
Amy and her best girlfriend, Ginevra Dunbar (a striking Tania Getty), have spent their days and weeks sneaking peeks of a British theater genre known as "Bad Girl" melodramas. In these overwrought displays, arch-villains collude with vivacious vixens to imperil frail heroines, while the innocent damsels hold their own against the sinister machinations of evil-doers. When Amy and Ginevra eavesdrop upon a conversation between Mother Alice and a possible interloper named Stephen Rollo (Neil McGowan's service here is subtle, sweet, and appropriately understated), the youngsters project their well-honed drama-queen mindsets onto the couple. Is this a case of life imitating art? Perhaps.
Meticulously directed by Joe Olivier, the pleasure of Alice lies not only in its precise and pleasing plot--though the plotting is a witty feat in itself--but, also, in its time-capsulization. It is as if we are transported to early 20th-century Britain. The flamboyant costuming (Rudy Dillon), the evocative scenic design (Stephanie Kerley-Schwartz), and Barrie's period vernacular all intertwine to deliver a satisfying picture of an erstwhile epoch in the English-speaking world.
What's more, charming story support is brought to us by a duo of scene-enhancing, cameo characters--Fanny (Ashley Cardman radiant in a seen-but-not-heard turn), and Richardson (Kristina Harrison creating art out of realistic but quirky facial mugs and on-the-dime slapstick).
Alice-By-The-Fire is a delicate holdover from a time bygone. Catch it. The fire burns through April 20. Show times are Thursday - Saturday at 8 p.m. Matinees are on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Pacific Resident Theatre is located at 705 1/2 Venice Boulevard, in Los Angeles. For reservations, dial (310) 822 - 8392. For more details, visit www.pacificresidenttheatre.com.
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