'Alice,' Once Again to Wonderland

The most important lesson imparted in "Alice," Mary Hall Surface's gentle and becoming world-premiere adaptation of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," is that you don't have to aim for preciousness when targeting theatergoers of a certain age.

That age, in the case of Round House Theatre's easy-on-the-eyes production, is on the tender side: 10 perhaps, 11 tops. Grown-ups won't be squirming much at this seasonal offering, because director Surface, in concert with costume designer Marianne Custer, uses a pleasing gumdrop-color palette and just enough invention to give an oft-told story an evocative sheen.

She's got an appealing Alice, too, in the up-and-coming (adult) Washington actress, Meghan Grady. For the assorted players who embody the gallery of Lewis Carroll fantastics, you need actors who can appear to be right-side up in an upside-down world; in other words, personalities that seem just a little bit off.

It's a trickier assignment than one might suppose, and some in the cast carry this off with more natural affinity than others. Let us just say that in a fairly sturdy ensemble, the sturdiest are Bill Largess and Hugh Nees, who most agreeably elbow their way into Alice's imagination. They contribute some of the production's better moments; Largess's turn as the excitable Duchess, and Nees's as the doleful Mock Turtle, deftly seem to leap directly out of storybook pages.

Lise Bruneau's cantankerous Queen of Hearts and Marcus Kyd's inscrutable Cheshire Cat -- whose smile is conjured here, quite concretely, with the assistance of an accordion -- succeed because they never force themselves heavily on characters that, under intensive directorial pressure, could lapse into shrillness or sugariness.

Speaking of that accordion: The episodic "Alice," whose plot is faithfully adhered to in this version, deploys a range of props and puppets, but never in a way that seeks to bury an audience in cleverness. In the croquet sequence, a contest the domineering queen simply has to win, the flamingo mallets she and Alice brandish are delightfully conjured, as are the hedgehog croquet balls that, of course, prove to have minds of their own.

You can sense the influence here of an imagist like the visionary Chicago director Mary Zimmerman, who over the years has staged for Shakespeare Theatre Company visually vibrant versions of the story of Jason and the Argonauts, as well as of Shakespeare's "Pericles." Surface and Custer come up with all kinds of ways to embroider the storytelling: a miniaturized White Rabbit (Chris Wilson) shows up as a marionette; a Griffon materializes as a silver sculpture come to life, with a truly majestic wingspan; a duck swimming in Alice's giant-size tears sports, in place of webbed feet, a pair of orange Crocs.

There's a slight worry in the early going that "Alice" might unfold as too stately an affair. The evening's prologue, which involves a dance, is performed by the ensemble, dressed in all-white Victorian finery. But Surface never loses sight of where she is headed, of a sense that this is a story of Alice visiting her fantasies one more time on the path to growing up. Many of the characters Alice comes across contribute to the wistful sense of fleeting youth, and the play as a result resists the cloying tug of cuteness.

The airy quality of Tony Cisek's arched set and Kenton Yeager's lighting reinforce the lightness of an evening that plays out as one of the better choices for parents looking for something festive to share with the kids.

Alice, directed and adapted by Mary Hall Surface from Lewis Carroll's novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Sound, Veronika Vorel; choreography, Casey Sams. With Chris Wilson, Tonya Beckman Ross. About two hours. Through Dec. 28 at Round House Theatre, 4545 East West Hwy., Bethesda. Call 240-644-1100 or visit http://www.roundhousetheatre.org.