Step outside the box, through the rabbit hole and into ALICE'S NIGHTMARE! This Halloween season, the Hippodrome asks mature audiences to forget the Wonderland of childhood memories and be prepared for a dynamic, absurd visual feast unlike any other experience.

What would happen if a traditional children's tale and characters was placed in an untraditional environment? This question is Director Lauren Caldwell's conceptual springboard for Alice in Wonderland. When the child Alice of Lewis Carroll's famous books falls through the rabbit hole into Wonderland, she finds herself in a fantastical world where she learns adult rules and meets intriguing characters while trying to find the key to get back home. Sound familiar? Don't be so sure. Through Caldwell's casting, Alice is no child and Wonderland is not necessarily a place of wonder and delight. This Alice doesn't merely want to get home; she wants to escape! What happens when an adult enters Wonderland after experiencing life outside the rabbit hole? Why does she so desperately want to get back? How does innocence and experience manifest in this familiar story with an adult in the lead role?

Over time, Alice in Wonderland has been explored in dissertations, movies, music and multiple stage adaptations. Lauren Caldwell joins the masses who have engaged in exploring Lewis Carroll's popular childhood heroine. Like other theatre artists before her (Robert Wilson, Anne Bogart, Andre Gregory), Caldwell has been gripped by the public's infatuation with Alice's adventure and eager to explore its many layers. In honoring the Hippodrome's mission to explore new forms, she has plunged headfirst into Carroll's world and shaken things up by applying a fascinating conceptual approach that will surely engage your senses and feed your imagination. Be ready to challenge your preconceived notions of Wonderland and its inhabitants!

Dreams and nightmares. Reality and Absurdity. Pleasure and Pain. How will Alice react to the rules of this Wonderland? As voyeur, how will you? Under Caldwell's direction, the endless imagination of the Hippodrome's designers (Marilyn A. Wall, Robert P. Robins, Lorelei Esser and Mihai Ciupe) and a talented cast of 9 ensemble actors (Kelly Atkins*, Mark Chambers*, Sara Morsey*, Catherine Fries Vaughn*, Jennifer Anderson, Elizabeth Arnold, Robyn Berg, Ryan Burbank, and Katharine Kertez), you will be entertained, tantalized, shocked and bewitched.

Leave your expectations at the door and release your wildest imagination. This is one adventure that Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud would surely travel. Come along for an unforgettable trip to a land of abstraction and whimsy which can only be found at the Hippodrome State Theatre. Call 375-HIPP for tickets and then call your babysitter.

October 20-November 12. Previews October 18 and 19