New York Times
June 15, 1982
Theatre: Wonderland Characters in 'Looking-Glass'
By JOHN CORRY
"Loooking-Glass,'' which opened at the Entermedia last night, is an actors' delight. Characters metamorphose; they are transmogrified. A student, sitting on a sofa, becomes the Mad Hatter. A chaplain, trotting about Oxford, becomes the White Rabbit. It is not magic; metamorphosis and transmogrification are patented acting techniques, and they make up much of the charm of ''Looking-Glass.'' The rest of the charm, a considerable amount, is supplied by John Vickery, who plays Charles Dodgson. He metamorphoses, in a way, into Lewis Carroll.
Mr. Vickery, who is on stage throughout, pulls off a kind of tour in this. ''Beware of frivolity,'' Dodgson's father tells his son when he leaves home to become a mathematics tutor. It is an absurd command. Charles Dodgson was born to frivolity - a deeply serious frivolity, to be sure, but imaginative and whimsical, nonetheless.
So, for much of the evening we watch Mr. Vickery being imaginative. As Dodgson, he is timid, longing, and perpetually on the verge of a stammer. As Carroll, he is something else - a man in love with, and driven by, an intelligent imagination.
Michael Sutton and Cynthia Mandelberg, the authors, have written ''Looking-Glass'' as a series of vignettes. Charles Dodgson arrives at Oxford and meets his new friends, Duckworth and Hayden. Duckworth owns the ''finest, most accurate timepiece at Oxford.'' Hayden has a watch that doesn't run at all. Dodgson proves that Hayden's is the better watch. Stuck at 3 o'clock, it is accurate twice a day, whereas Duckworth's watch, which loses a second every 24 hours, is accurate only once every 118 years. Thus, Mr. Vickery's Dodgson, listening to his own lively intelligence, is for a moment Lewis Carroll.
Or, in another of David H. Bell's imaginatively directed scenes, Dodgson goes punting on the Thames with young Alice Liddell. He starts to recite ''Alice in Wonderland.'' Characters from his own life scurry about, metamorphosing into ''Alice's'' characters. Mr. Vickery is alive with fun at moments like this, and because ''Looking-Glass'' is a handsome production - Jeanne Button's costumes are particularly stylish - we are well pleased. But moments, no matter how much fun they are, do not make a play. ''Looking-Glass'' has no core.
Presumably, the play is about the death of imagination. At the end of Act I, a jealous rival finds the famous photographs of a nude Alice, and shows them to her mother. She forbids Dodgson to see Alice again. He is crushed - Mr. Vickery's face positively crumbles - and when we see him again (20 years later, the start of Act II) he is a sour man. He denies he even wrote the books by Lewis Carroll.
The authors, of course, are using literary license here. Carroll wrote ''Alice'' in 1865, ''Through the Looking Glass'' in 1872, and ''The Hunting of the Snark'' in 1876. There was no 20-year hiatus. But if there had been, it would have been interesting to see it dramatized. The hiatus in ''Looking-Glass'' happens during the intermission. In Act II, Dodgson, on meeting another little girl, becomes Lewis Carroll again. Mr. Sutton and Miss Mandelberg have written a play not about the death of imagination, but about the death and rebirth of Lewis Carroll. ''Looking-Glass'' is better as a production than it is as a play.
Imagination
LOOKING-GLASS, by Michael Sutton and Cynthia Mandelberg; directed by David H. Bell; scenery by John Arnone; lighting by Frances Aronson; costumes by Jeanne Button; music by David Spangler and Marc Elliot; production stage manager, Douglas F. Goodman.
Presented by Dan Fauci, Joseph Scalzo and the Actors Institute, in association with Frances T. Hillin, Allen Schoer and Entermedia Inc. At the Entermedia Theater, Second Avenue and 12th Street.
| Charles Lutwidge Dodgson | John Vickery |
| Reverend Dodgson | Richard Clarke |
| Chaplain MacDougal and Josiah Gibbs | Robert Machray |
| Robinson Duckworth | Nicholas Hormann |
| William Hayden | Richard Peterson |
| Jenkins and Boy | Mitchell Steven Tebo |
| Dean Liddell | Richard Clarke |
| Alice and Agnes | Tara Kennedy |
| Mrs. Liddell | Tudi Wiggins |
| Miss Prickett | Innes-Fergus McDade |
| Young Woman | Melanie Hague |