In this day and age where people groan about Christmas being so commercialized even as they are combing the malls for gifts, we do need reminding that, yes, it’s all right if we don’t blow our savings on presents, it’s all right if we don’t receive as much as we give, it’s all right to have the humblest table when getting together with family and friends.
And who should remind us of all this but a mall? Robinsons Malls and Stages Inc. are presenting Alice in Christmasland, written and directed by Jaime del Mundo and adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Actors include Diane de la Fuente, Carlo Orosa and Lynn Sherman (the last gave a wonderful performance the last time I saw her in The Vagina Monologues) in the roles of Alice, the White Rabbit and the Queen of Hearts, respectively. Completing the cast are Mylene Evangelista, David Cosico, Niel de Mesa, Ichoko Gonzalez, Cliff Villareal, Mayen Bustamante, Liesl Laforteza and Alvin de la Peña. Choreography is by James Laforteza.
This is the fourth collaboration between Robinsons and Stages, the theater group that brought you Little Mermaid last August. Past presentations of Stages at Robinsons Malls have included Peter Pan. All presentations have been adapted into a musical plays that focus on traditional Filipino values. Rather than telling everybody to go lose their minds shopping, they’re telling people that Christmas is about sharing.
Jaime del Mundo put together Alice only last month. "I’m a fast writer," he smiles when we wonder out loud how he was able to compose and direct the 40-minute musical.
So, why Alice this year? Del Mundo says, "We’ve already done other children’s plays and Repertory is doing Cinderella, so the choices led us to Alice, which presented its own set of challenges. We had to find something that every kid could identify with and that was the enrapturement with Christmas – of being totally caught up in the shopping, the decoration and all, and then wishing that they could have it all year long."
As Alice travels through Christmasland, she asks the characters that she meets how she could have Christmas every day in her own land. She finds the Mad Hatter (the famous tea party is now a Christmas party) who celebrates Christmas by sharing food with others (the watching audience at Robinsons, hurrah!). She also meets the grinning Cheshire Cat who doesn’t tell her the big secret to finding the Christmas spirit but rather sings up a storm with other animals to cheer up Alice.
Then she comes across Tweedledum and Tweedledee (giant school boys in this version) who are on Christmas vacation. Alice is surprised to find the schoolboys studying despite the fact that they don’t have to. She’s told that they like to study even when school’s out. (Hmmm, how true is this to Filipino children?)
Next comes her adventure with the Queen who takes her out shopping (but of course!). Instead of shopping for herself, the Queen is shopping for her people. "What kind of Queen do you think I am?" she asks Alice.
The girl then finds a broken Humpty Dumpty whom she patches up together again – at the price of losing sight of the White Rabbit whom she thinks can lead her to the Christmas Spirit.
What Alice realizes in the end is that the spirit of Christmas was with her all along, in every person she met in Christmas Land, in every kind gesture given by the characters and herself even.
This is one musical play that will hopefully spark interest in the classics once more, says Jaime del Mundo.
Parents might have one more wish to add to their list after they take kids to see Alice in Christmasland: Let’s hope these brats won’t ask for anything expensive this year.