(Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando FL)
“A dream is not reality but who’s to say which is which?”
--Lewis Caroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
MOMIX: Alice perfectly encapsulated this quote by Caroll, the author of the original “Alice in Wonderland” series, as MOMIX brought this beloved classic childhood story to life. While the description on Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts' noted that MOMIX did not aim to exactly retell Alice in Wonderland, it did help to know the basics of this classic tale beforehand; however, coming in with an open mind and ready to absorb these unique wonders and interpretations, went a long way. I have had the fortune of experiencing several shows at Dr. Phillips as well as Cirque Du Soleil, and MOMIX was unlike any I have ever seen before. MOMIX combined having a storyline typical of Dr. Phillips’ other showings with the acrobatics of Cirque to create a capturing performance of not only Alice’s adventure down the rabbit hole, but of an adventure we all must embark on ourselves -- this was a story of change.
The show began with this older man featured on the projector with the words, “Who are you?”. Though it may have seemed random at first, this question set the tone and premise of what Alice’s story was truly a symbol for: a child entering and experiencing adolescence, trying to figure out exactly “who” they were. The traditional story of Alice in Wonderland may have appeared as a simple, whimsical plot to read to children before bedtime; however, MOMIX encouraged the audience to think deeper behind the story we may have overlooked as children, one for which we could now better analyze and understand its metaphors as we returned to it at older ages.
After transitioning from the projector to introducing the character Alice on stage, soon, we journeyed together with Alice down the rabbit hole. For those who may have been unfamiliar with the plot, the idea was that Alice was a normal little girl who curiously peered into the rabbit hole, fell down, and upon crawling out of the hole’s other end, found herself in a new, unfamiliar wonderland filled with interesting characters. MOMIX did a beautiful job of showcasing how, exactly, Alice did fall down this rabbit hole - and showed how Alice just kept falling right back down, time after time. 4 bins, similar to that of a typical laundry bin, were on stage with 4 girls all dressed alike in white dresses and dirty blonde hair standing on the bins’ edges. When each girl had fallen down into their own bin, another girl seemed to be crawling out of their bin, as if it was actually just Alice, our main character, who could not escape this endless rabbit hole. To convey this on stage was truly impressive, having mastered the act of “falling” and scrunching oneself deep enough into the bin that it appeared that each girl had truly fallen right through the floor itself. No matter how many times Alice tried to escape this rabbit hole, it was as inevitable as the act of growing up: there’s no escaping the act of change.
In both the MOMIX performance and the original Alice storyline, the bulk of Alice’s journey in Wonderland was meeting an array of distinct (some may say “peculiar”) characters. One of the first few characters we were introduced to were the rabbits dancing on stage. There were a handful of these seemingly naked human bodies, wearing nude underwear, with no human faces but instead big cutouts of rabbit’s headshots as the faces, dancing to the sound of a rickety, ticking clock. I viewed this as the representation for the White Rabbit because of its emphasis of time ticking and passing away, symbolizing the fleeting nature of childhood and existential anxiety, portrayed by the dancers’ fast, jerky movements. The six rabbits onstage danced as one, moving to display different shapes in creating various formations and rows. When one rabbit began to dance away and out of the group, it soon got pulled right back into the group’s formation. This is symbolic of the pressure and rigidity to conform to society’s expectations that only increase as one grows older, as Alice was now beginning to learn and face.
Of course, the other classic characters had their own scenes and distinct showcases -- the twins Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the Duchess, the Queen of Hearts, and more. Notably, The Mad Hatter’s portrayal was of three top hats zipping all around across the stage on scooters, and The Caterpillar was represented by multiple bouncy balls separately tossed around by actors dressed in stage black with glow-in-the-dark shoes, creating the illusion that The Caterpillar was actively walking and moving around. Both The Mad Hatter and The Caterpillar’s performances involved constant movement, of the items repeatedly being pulled together and apart, signifying how Alice’s journey through adolescence was not linear and, instead, full of continual change. A separate performance of the red roses also signified this lesson, but with more of a warning. Regarding the beautiful three red roses on stage, actors held up these flexible props to show them blooming and blossoming, gradually transformed into what appeared to be lips: the lips of a Venus fly trap. This symbolic performance showed both Alice and the audience that things weren't always what they seemed to be, a life lesson that Alice in particular was encouraged to learn as curiosity was one of her defining characteristics. This performance exercised curiosity throughout each individual act, as the audience continued to wonder both how that was happening on stage and what is going to happen next.
The use of acrobatics and visual tricks, such as the actors using different movements underneath their cloth costumes to become stockier as if they were the deck of cards army belonging to the antagonist Queen of Hearts, was spectacular and completed by the excellent employment of the scenery and mechanics.
After intermission, the second act switched to focus more on nature, with the first two individual scenes being jellyfish in the beach and trees in the forest. The graceful, flowing movement of the “jellyfish” on stage contrasted by the subsequent brisk movements of the strong “trees” demonstrated the performers’ range and accomplishment of truly giving life and emotion to these features that weren't typically thought of twice, and now by which, the audience had been captured.
Immersive, reflective, unique, and above all else: beyond creative. You may not necessarily have known what to expect before viewing MOMIX, but you surely wouldn't regret having watched it. As guaranteed: you have not seen anything like this performance before. Embrace your inner Alice, and explore the outstanding captivation MOMIX has to offer. As Lewis Caroll himself had written in the story, “Curiouser and curiouser!”
– Brianna Guinigundo
“A dream is not reality but who’s to say which is which?”
--Lewis Caroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
MOMIX: Alice perfectly encapsulated this quote by Caroll, the author of the original “Alice in Wonderland” series, as MOMIX brought this beloved classic childhood story to life. While the description on Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts' noted that MOMIX did not aim to exactly retell Alice in Wonderland, it did help to know the basics of this classic tale beforehand; however, coming in with an open mind and ready to absorb these unique wonders and interpretations, went a long way. I have had the fortune of experiencing several shows at Dr. Phillips as well as Cirque Du Soleil, and MOMIX was unlike any I have ever seen before. MOMIX combined having a storyline typical of Dr. Phillips’ other showings with the acrobatics of Cirque to create a capturing performance of not only Alice’s adventure down the rabbit hole, but of an adventure we all must embark on ourselves -- this was a story of change.
The show began with this older man featured on the projector with the words, “Who are you?”. Though it may have seemed random at first, this question set the tone and premise of what Alice’s story was truly a symbol for: a child entering and experiencing adolescence, trying to figure out exactly “who” they were. The traditional story of Alice in Wonderland may have appeared as a simple, whimsical plot to read to children before bedtime; however, MOMIX encouraged the audience to think deeper behind the story we may have overlooked as children, one for which we could now better analyze and understand its metaphors as we returned to it at older ages.
After transitioning from the projector to introducing the character Alice on stage, soon, we journeyed together with Alice down the rabbit hole. For those who may have been unfamiliar with the plot, the idea was that Alice was a normal little girl who curiously peered into the rabbit hole, fell down, and upon crawling out of the hole’s other end, found herself in a new, unfamiliar wonderland filled with interesting characters. MOMIX did a beautiful job of showcasing how, exactly, Alice did fall down this rabbit hole - and showed how Alice just kept falling right back down, time after time. 4 bins, similar to that of a typical laundry bin, were on stage with 4 girls all dressed alike in white dresses and dirty blonde hair standing on the bins’ edges. When each girl had fallen down into their own bin, another girl seemed to be crawling out of their bin, as if it was actually just Alice, our main character, who could not escape this endless rabbit hole. To convey this on stage was truly impressive, having mastered the act of “falling” and scrunching oneself deep enough into the bin that it appeared that each girl had truly fallen right through the floor itself. No matter how many times Alice tried to escape this rabbit hole, it was as inevitable as the act of growing up: there’s no escaping the act of change.
In both the MOMIX performance and the original Alice storyline, the bulk of Alice’s journey in Wonderland was meeting an array of distinct (some may say “peculiar”) characters. One of the first few characters we were introduced to were the rabbits dancing on stage. There were a handful of these seemingly naked human bodies, wearing nude underwear, with no human faces but instead big cutouts of rabbit’s headshots as the faces, dancing to the sound of a rickety, ticking clock. I viewed this as the representation for the White Rabbit because of its emphasis of time ticking and passing away, symbolizing the fleeting nature of childhood and existential anxiety, portrayed by the dancers’ fast, jerky movements. The six rabbits onstage danced as one, moving to display different shapes in creating various formations and rows. When one rabbit began to dance away and out of the group, it soon got pulled right back into the group’s formation. This is symbolic of the pressure and rigidity to conform to society’s expectations that only increase as one grows older, as Alice was now beginning to learn and face.
Of course, the other classic characters had their own scenes and distinct showcases -- the twins Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the Duchess, the Queen of Hearts, and more. Notably, The Mad Hatter’s portrayal was of three top hats zipping all around across the stage on scooters, and The Caterpillar was represented by multiple bouncy balls separately tossed around by actors dressed in stage black with glow-in-the-dark shoes, creating the illusion that The Caterpillar was actively walking and moving around. Both The Mad Hatter and The Caterpillar’s performances involved constant movement, of the items repeatedly being pulled together and apart, signifying how Alice’s journey through adolescence was not linear and, instead, full of continual change. A separate performance of the red roses also signified this lesson, but with more of a warning. Regarding the beautiful three red roses on stage, actors held up these flexible props to show them blooming and blossoming, gradually transformed into what appeared to be lips: the lips of a Venus fly trap. This symbolic performance showed both Alice and the audience that things weren't always what they seemed to be, a life lesson that Alice in particular was encouraged to learn as curiosity was one of her defining characteristics. This performance exercised curiosity throughout each individual act, as the audience continued to wonder both how that was happening on stage and what is going to happen next.
The use of acrobatics and visual tricks, such as the actors using different movements underneath their cloth costumes to become stockier as if they were the deck of cards army belonging to the antagonist Queen of Hearts, was spectacular and completed by the excellent employment of the scenery and mechanics.
After intermission, the second act switched to focus more on nature, with the first two individual scenes being jellyfish in the beach and trees in the forest. The graceful, flowing movement of the “jellyfish” on stage contrasted by the subsequent brisk movements of the strong “trees” demonstrated the performers’ range and accomplishment of truly giving life and emotion to these features that weren't typically thought of twice, and now by which, the audience had been captured.
Immersive, reflective, unique, and above all else: beyond creative. You may not necessarily have known what to expect before viewing MOMIX, but you surely wouldn't regret having watched it. As guaranteed: you have not seen anything like this performance before. Embrace your inner Alice, and explore the outstanding captivation MOMIX has to offer. As Lewis Caroll himself had written in the story, “Curiouser and curiouser!”
– Brianna Guinigundo
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