- A journey from mad scripts to carpooling to the Wendt
Last weekend, Brunch attended the opening night staging of ‘A Nightmare in Wonderland,’ an original play by the Mad Hatters’ Collective, written by Wayne White, directed by Wayne White and Reihan Stephen, and produced by Johann ‘Paala’ Perera.
The production of ‘A Nightmare in Wonderland’ is particularly significant owing to the fact that the play represents one of the first original English language plays to be staged for a commercial audience at the Lionel Wendt following the literal shutdown of the arts during the pandemic, after the final instalment of Arsikland in March 2020.
The play also happened to have the unfortunate timing of being staged in the middle of the absolute height of Sri Lanka’s fuel crisis. However, despite the many obstacles they were presented with, the creators made a collective decision that the show must go on, and incredibly, it was quite undoubtedly a resounding success.
Mission impossible: Getting to the Wendt
Getting to the theatre by 7.30 p.m. on Friday was stressful, to say the least. We got lucky thanks to a 154 bus which was alarmingly close to bursting at the seams with passengers, wheezing in its tilted struggle to get from each bus halt to the next.
However, the good people at the Mad Hatters’ Collective had a great thing going, for as soon as they decided to go ahead with the play and not postpone it, they attempted to arrange a shuttle service for the audience. Carpooling was arranged for most people, one for the Negombo road via the Kelaniya and Battaramulla route and another for the Galle Road route, and it would seem that they managed things quite well considering that the theatre was surpassingly full for a country in crisis.
Stephen even expressed his anxiety until the very last minute of opening night, having turned into a pacing menace at the theatre, bubbling with anxiety wondering if they may indeed be faced with an empty theatre. “The main challenge was getting an audience to the theatre,” he shared, and thankfully, an incredible marketing campaign paired with quick thinking resulted in a great turnout, and we were all able to happily enjoy what was, in our opinion, a stunningly entertaining piece of original theatre.
A Nightmare in Wonderland
The marketing for the play suggested to audiences that the play would be a “twisted retelling of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland”. However, the official synopsis for the play gives a more accurate description of what to expect: “We all know the story of the girl who had an adventure in Wonderland. But this is not that Wonderland, and this is not that little girl. A Nightmare in Wonderland tells the tale of a shattered mind consumed by chaos and the price one pays for a poisoned imagination. We follow the story of Alice, who has been committed to the Wittsend Asylum after attacking her father with a kitchen knife. As the police and her doctor slowly piece together pieces of her psyche, the revelation of the truth proves to be far more twisted than they expected.”
More than a retelling, the story strips Lewis Carroll’s fantasy of its childlike wonder which gives it its sense of fantasy and replaces it with eerie reality. Basically, if Alice were real, she’d be crazy. Accurately advised for mature audiences, the narrative was well-paced, and given the minimalist set pieces and small cast, the playwright and directors were able to really evoke suspense and even a bit of mystery.
The incredible cast comprised a mixed bag of first-time performers and a few experienced thespians, with Sashyani Rodrigo who played Alice giving an incredible performance despite this being her very first leading role. The rest of the cast included Mareeza Randeniya as the Mad Hatter, Nethmi Gunasekera as the White Rabbit, Yehana Perera as Tweedles – the youngest member of the crew who showed great potential as a future star, Jemiah Sourjah as Cheshire, and a few others taking on the roles of characters unique to this particular version of the story – Visura Silva, Janindi Perera, Rad, Shehani Guruge, and Vihan Wickramasurendra.
Rodrigo, who played the protagonist Alice, said: “I was definitely out of my comfort zone, which is actually what I like because I am always up for a challenge. I am someone who constantly wants to do something better than what I have done before. It was a really rewarding process, to actually do justice to this character.”
A spirited young actress and the youngest crew member Yehana Perera also shared her thoughts: “It wasn’t as hard as I expected to be, the hard part was really the lines and the blocking.” The production crew noted that despite the show being technically classified for a mature audience, it was more a loose classification for ‘viewer discretion advised,’ adding that Perera’s parents were fully onboard from the beginning.
An interesting script
Playwright Wayne White shared that originally, ‘A Nightmare in Wonderland’ was performed as a school play at White’s alma mater and as an award-winning play at the All-Island School Drama Competition. This was in 2017, and now, in 2022, they decided to develop an extended script, an all-new cast, and to put on a show at the Lionel Wendt.
White shared that initially, considering the story’s interesting origins, he did not have any profound idea to convey, but rather that he had a “crazy idea” that he wanted people to witness. However, over the years, the more they workshopped it and fiddled with the script they realised there may be a deeper message. As for White, he found that, “it showcases the downside of escapism, because Alice escapes her shattered reality and retreats to her mind and because of this she never faces her problems.”
He added: “It also deals with the fact that having good intentions of being there to help does not always mean that you are doing a good job; you may even be doing more harm if you don’t really know how to approach this subject of mental illness.”
The production team of White, Stephen, and Perera together highlighted that the process was highly collaborative, which allowed them to have a fully-formed idea of what they expected from the play which then permitted them to go ahead with casting, set design, and others.
True to its name: The Mad Hatters’ Collective
Commenting on the future activities of the Mad Hatters’ Collective, Stephen said: “In terms of what we do, we are all about original theatre, but we will also be looking at bringing down plays. However, the majority of our focus will be on original theatre. We would like to invite people with scripts who want a play produced. Pitch it to us if you have faith in your script and if you manage to sell it to us, we should then be able to put it on for you,” he said, cheekily adding: “Provided you bring the money as well.”
Johann Perera also shared his thoughts on original English language theatre in Sri Lanka. “One of the biggest comments that I got from veterans in the theatre community was that there is so much talent in terms of writing plays in Sri Lanka – we have superb people who have written amazing productions, and not only in the more popular satire category. Knowing that there is so much talent was one thing that inspired me to take this on when Wayne first asked me to put this play together,” he said, adding: “We rarely see original stuff come up, but I am hopeful we will see more of this in the future.”
The Collective shared that things were looking very eventful in terms of the group’s future, with one of the cast members having brought them a story which they believe is very promising. They hope to do a few short films, and according to Stephen, “if uncle [Wayne] gets his act together we will have a script soon, maybe in two years’ time.” So, fans of the Mad Hatters’ Collective need not worry, there’s plenty of things in store!
