The Stratford Theatre Review: A Wrinkle in Time

By Ross

It’s a thrill ride, this fantastical journey, watched by a gaggle of excited kids that have filled the Avon Theatre at the Stratford Festival for their Schulich Children’s Plays production of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Dutifully adapted and directed with care by Thomas Morgan Jones (director/PTE’s Post-Democracy; playwright/Wee Festival’s Old Man and the River), the embarkment of this journey through time and space, from galaxy to galaxy, is deliciously fun and endearing, especially when hearing those whispered questions and buzz from young engaged children getting their first glimpse of what might be one of their favorite tales brought to big Stratford life. And the show doesn’t disappoint, for the most part, at least for these enthralled kids, as it flies upward and forward into fantasy and fun. Oh, and a possibly devastating war between worlds. But let’s not be too concerned by that. Just yet.

At its good-natured core are three youngsters who are in desperate need of answers to big-time questions that no one is willing to give to them, especially their mother, played wise but somewhat stiffly by Beck Lloyd (Stratford’s R+J). The only ones that might help them are three strange women who live in a haunted house deep in the woods. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s back it up to a dark and stormy night when lighting seems to be cracking the world apart, and our young heroine quickly finds herself at the center of a whole different kind of storm. One that will forever change and enlighten her, for the better.

The young woman is Meg Murry, played intensely by the wonderful Celeste Catena (Shaw’s White Christmas), who brings a defiant nerdy power to the role. When the storm thrusts her into the kitchen, greeted by her oddball genius kid brother, Charles Wallace, dynamically portrayed by Noah Beemer (Tweed and Co’s Ride the Cyclone), and her cautiously distant mother, questions about her lost dad hang in the air like big red balls of light. But before they can feast on a midnight snack of thick jam sandwiches prepared with pleasure by the compelling Charles Wallace, they are interrupted, quite suddenly and surprisingly, by the arrival of the peculiarly wonderful Mrs. Whatsit, played to wild perfection by Nestor Lozano Jr. (Stratford’s Rent) dressed to the nines in deliciously fun costuming by the brilliant Robin Fisher (Grand’s Dream a Little Dream). It’s a shock and a scene, that no one but Charles Wallace seems to understand. But a clue is dropped before them by this magnificent visitor, about Meg’s dad, Mr. Murry, a scientist engaged in some secret government research who has been missing for years. Mrs. Whatsit seems to know a thing or two about his whereabouts, but the time isn’t quite here yet, she says. But they must be prepared for the moment when it arrives.

With a quick rotation of some blocky stocky structures designed for projection somewhat simply by Teresa Przybylski (Tarragon’s Post-Democracy), we do a quick jump to the next day, as we watch Charles Wallace and Meg run right into the adorably charming Calvin O’Keefe, a guy from school, who seems to be also on his way to the haunted house deep in the woods. But he doesn’t really seem to know why he’s on this path, until the collision. Calvin, played hilariously and gorgeously by Robert Markus (Stratford’s Chicago), is as wonderful an addition as one could hope for, filled with sweetness and care, with a jovial nature that turns out to be his strength against all odds. And that is the name of this Wrinkle in Time game. How uniqueness isn’t something to be embarrassed by. Those qualities, the opposites of uniformity, that we sometimes think are the cause of our pain and troubles are actually our strengths and should be held proudly up to the galaxies. But once again, I might be getting ahead of myself.

These three, destined to be together until the end, are enlightened and enlisted by Mrs. Whatsit and her two eccentric ‘sisters.’ You might say. They instruct, that when the time is right, the three must embark on a most perilous journey, lit most enjoyably by Kimberly Purtell (Soulpepper’s Mother’s Daughter) in a production that mostly works its magic on our eyes. It will be dangerous and stomach-churning, they say, just ask the wonderful Calvin who has the hardest time of the three traveling through this Wrinkle in Time, but it is of grave importance. What is this Wrinkle, you might ask? Well, it’s an alternate dimension that allows them to spin and fly into a whole new world against the order of time. Meg gets it. Calvin, not so much, but it is there for them to use so they can rescue Murry’s father, played well by Jamie Mac (Stage West’s The 39 Steps). The shortest way between two points is not always a straight line, we are told, and every second counts as the trio attempt to fight back against ‘The Black Thing‘ that wants to take over the universe with its suit-and-tied conformity and intensely controlled sense of order. And that battle needs to begin now.

The three miraculously clad women, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, embodied by Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah (Stratford’s Every Little Nookie) quoting, most naturally Shakespeare and company at every opportune moment she can find, and the one who is the most-in-the-know, Mrs. Which, deliciously portrayed by Kim Horsman (Grand’s Top Girls), lead the threesome into war. Backed by some strong musical compositions by sound designer, Deanna H. Choi (Tarragon’s Cockroach), a cosmic battle between the forces of light and dark, good and evil, uniformed structure and uniqueness, needs to begin in order to save us all, but also to find their father and unite the Murry family unit. ‘The Black Thing‘ is threatening to conquer the entire universe and time is running out, for everyone, not just for those who get possessed by the man with the red eyes (Jamie Mac) and his dutiful servants (Jahlen Barnes, Germaine Konji, Erica Peck), unless the three, particularly Meg, can find their way through, taking on the nightmares and storms that are trying to destroy all that she and her pack hold dear.

The two tall three-dimensional rotating rectangles of projected space draw us into this mystical magical piece, attempting to create awesome and cinematic surroundings that amaze and delight. They generally do their duty, but the expansive view feels somewhat constrained and limited even in its projected sophistication (projection design by jaymez). It needed a wider point of view and a more encompassing vision, like the creativity that went into those magnificent costumes that radiate exactly the kind of energy and excitement that A Wrinkle in Time needs to fully captivate the experience completely.

The Aunt Beasts (Konji, Lloyd, and Peck) do wonders to enliven and empower the story and the feeling, but the heartstrings that were pulled almost immediately by Meg and company in that stormy kitchen, meander away somewhat, lost in outer space, as Jones’ adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s galaxy of wonderment and imagination spins and turns on itself. Over time, it loses some, but not all, of the engagement it so tenderly nurtured in its construction. But the kids around me were spellbound by A Wrinkle in Time, breathing in the ideas that differences don’t make problems, and that uniqueness is our superpower. And that love and family are the strongest of allies. Together, they can knock ‘The Black Thing‘ out of our universe, and all that is good and filled with love can be reunited once again. And “that loving ourselves is the key to loving others.” Well said, L’Engle. Now that is a good lesson to be taught to us all, not just the enthralled young ones that sat enraptured in the audience from beginning to end.