Alice Comes of Age

Becoming a teenager is a rite of passage eagerly awaited by most children, but in Round House Theatre's staging of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," hitting the big 1-3 is enough to send Alice scurrying for the nearest rabbit hole.

On the other side, Wonderland awaits both Alice and the audience in Mary Hall Surface's adaptation of Carroll's tale, which has its premiere Wednesday at the Bethesda theater. The re-imagined story, called "Alice," finds our heroine stricken with a bout of existential angst as she ponders her place in the world, no longer a child but not quite an adult, either.

Creating a narrative from Carroll's episodic format, in which Alice encounters a beguiling set of characters, including the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat, required the development of a consistent theme, Surface says. "It's a play about growing, getting bigger and smaller and, metaphorically, what that means about the journey that we all take," she says, describing her coming-of-age tale.

In Surface's story, Alice is nervously preparing to celebrate her 13th birthday. Not wanting to leave her youth behind, Alice opts to follow the White Rabbit in lieu of blowing out her candles, embarking on a trip that will distort her world.

The decision to make Alice older than in Carroll's telling, where she was 7, stemmed from Surface's experiences with her teenage daughter, in which she witnessed the crises of identity that arise when society expects certain behavior but one's personality remains on the playground.

"The kind of choices that all children make, but girls in particular, when they are moving from being a child to being a teen, surprisingly, it can be a process of really shutting themselves down, closing off much of their authentic selves," Surface says.

As she explores Wonderland, Alice encounters figures and locales that bear subtle symbolic resemblance to places and people from her life.

"I don't do big animal heads. I don't do Barneys," Surface says. "It's a much more sophisticated approach, of Alice and all the characters sort of treading that line between dream and reality that -- if you just sort of squint your eyes -- you go, 'Is that the gardener or is that a duck?' "

Meghan Grady, 26, says she didn't think she had a shot of landing the role of Alice because of her age. But she hasn't had trouble acting like she's 13 again. "The child aspects are fun and liberating and free, and then those moments when you feel awkward . . . and you're trying so hard to be mature: Those are moments, both on stage and as a person, where you end up feeling awkward," she says.

"Alice" is appropriate for age 6 and older but is designed to appeal to a range of ages. "Our family shows are like a good Pixar movie, in that the kids can enjoy the fantasy and humor on their level," says Round House's artistic director, Blake Robison. "But there are some more adult themes and arguments going on in the piece as well."

Alice Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Hwy., Bethesda. http://www.round-house.org. 240-644-1100. Wednesday through Dec. 28. $25-$60; $20 for children and teens.