It began with a dance to the music of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. All the characters pop through the picture frame including me, wearing an oversized Cheshire Cat smile that I hold up with a bottle nipple between my teeth. As Alice sings a little ditty, we scramble to our positions, grab large flamingos, and play imaginary croquet. Sound a little strange? Welcome to the world premiere of the play Mad Hattr.

"The poem at the beginning of the book is a reasonably accurate account of how the book came to be."

The play is based on the life of Charles Dogdson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, and the Fusion Theatre Company pull out all the stops technically to make this production work. Four plasma screens display a potpourri of images ranging from live picture taking to hazy allusions of the different cinematic versions of Alice in Wonderland. The set itself represents Carroll's brain with light streams that flashed when stimulated. The audience sits behind wood barriers much like a jury, and the quality soundtrack was created by a local composing team. Our costumes are nineteenth century high fashion, and I sport pants, shirt, vest & ascot, strapped in with suspenders and sock-to-shirt garters. Easily the best tech I've had for any theatre production.

"For God's sake, Charlie. Take that off. You look like a crowned frog spitting up bad bordeaux."

Memories from Dodgson's life flash at him in bizarre & sometimes confusing ways. His relationship with the Liddell family is the crux of the storytelling. As a mathematics professor at The College of Christ Church, Dodgson is employed by Dean Henry Liddell, infatuated with his wife Lorina Liddell, and inspired by their daughter Alice Liddell. Arthur Stanley is one of the Dean's underlings, and a not so secret lover of the Dean as well. Make sense? Hmmmm.

"Down with you, Dodgson!"

The first twenty minutes of the play are quite a workout for me. After the dance, I pose, scamper, whirl, harass, play leapfrog, throw down to the ground, sodomize, and spin a pulpit around the stage. I stopped exercising outside the theatre, as the aerobic movements plus stretching got me in better shape than my running and pushups. As an ensemble character, I play the Cheshire Cat, theatre goer and school boy before I even get to the character of which I'm labeled. I felt slightly schizophrenic during much of the rehearsal process.

"Tut, tut, laddy. Everything's got a moral if you can only find it. (singing) And the moral of the story is....tis love, tis love, tis love, tis love, tis love that makes the world go round."

I tote a big cigar, stride with a cocktail glass, and have a fuming moment with my lover before he grabs my hand to kiss it. I slowly (never slow enough for the director) raise my hand to his face, and just before we kiss, his daughter Alice catches us. It's my gayest moment on stage to date, and I pulled it off just fine.

"Theatre, laddy? Not quite the place for an Oxford fellow about to take holy orders."

The more famous Dodgson gets, the more things fall apart around him. He takes to drink, his affair with the Dean's wife turns sour, and even Alice abandons him in the end. Meanwhile, I come on and off with props, dance with one of his aunts while wearing my Cheshire Cat smile & strip off her top, and recite the beginning of The Jabberwocky while whisking around a flamingo.

"Twas brillig and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe, all mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe. Beware the Jabberwock my son, the jaws that bite, the claws that catch, beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the fruminous Bandersnatch."

To say the play is coherent is a stretch, but the play succeeds in its Carroll-esque lunacy. Billed as an adult fairy tale, Mad Hattr lets us into the mind of Carroll without coming to a consensus or complete rationale. Nevertheless, audience have enjoyed our three weekend, 12-performance run. The final three shows are sell outs. Not bad, considering tickets are a hefty 22 bucks a pop. Quality acting, directing & tech can do wonders for a bizarre script.

"I first started playing Alice at thirteen. At the end of the first term, each class had to do a short play. We did Mad Hatter's Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. And guess who played Alice in a pretty blue dress and white apron and stockings?"

I've played some wacky roles in my acting life, and Canon Arthur Stanley still found ways to challenge me physically & mentally. Working at the one Equity theatre in town means I even get a little check for my efforts. The final matinee begins in a little over two hours, and I will then put my Cheshire Cat smile away. May has been gay for me, but it will be a long time before Lewis Carroll's brain fades from my own.

Chris Jungle stole some tarts and took them quite away.