Where the impossible is discovery

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sifting through the names of all the similar-sounding holiday shows and was considering whether the pleasure of making a daisy chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a strangely spelled title ran across the white page and popped down a large rabbit hole. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

“Carrolling,” the new seasonal show at A Noise Within, is rather like a trip down Alice’s rabbit hole, into a world where the inhabitants speak in riddles or puns and where the impossible happens every day. Presented in 80 minutes, without intermission, the piece draws upon the Lewis Carroll stories “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass,” as well as some of his verse writing, material from his ghostly “Phantasmagoria” and more.

An imperious queen experiences life in reverse; a beastly Jabberwock rears its ugly head; comical characters go hunting for a Snark -- events that become, in Alice’s words, “curiouser and curiouser.”

The writing may not seem particularly seasonal, but the show fulfills the holiday tradition of storytelling. More emphasis on telling is needed, however. Fantastical and seemingly nonsensical, these excerpts are presented out of context, with little setup. Those not already well versed in Carroll’s writing might feel left out.

Like “A Wilde Holiday,” the Oscar Wilde sampler that the Glendale theater company previously performed at this time of year, “Carrolling” was constructed and directed by Sabin Epstein, with music by Laura Karpman.

Dressed in Angela Balogh Calin’s evening clothes, the actors -- Ann Marie Lee, Michael McKenzie, Deborah Strang and Michael Vodde -- read from scripts positioned on music stands or carried about a stage that Michael Smith has decorated with a couple of nods toward Alice.

The floor looks like a chessboard, and a tea service has been arrayed on the lid of the gleaming piano presided over by accompanist David O, who often lends his voice to the harmonies.

In a particularly punny-funny passage from “Alice,” the Mock Turtle recalls schoolboy lessons in “the different branches of arithmetic: ambition, distraction, uglification and derision” -- taught by a tortoise, so-called “because he taught us.” Set to music, “The Lobster-Quadrille” is a gently insistent invitation to “join the dance.”

Indeed, all of Lewis’ words -- spoken here in solos, duets and choral passages -- sound like music, even when they aren’t set to strains reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan, jazz or Stephen Sondheim.

Quiet and shy around adults, the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson -- the Oxford instructor of mathematics who took the pen name Lewis Carroll -- blossomed around young girls. They were the readership intended for much of his writing, and “Carrolling” urges theatergoers to return, however briefly, to childlike wonder.

Yet even those who make it back are likely to share Alice’s frustration: “Oh dear, how puzzling it all is!”

*

‘Carrolling’

Where: A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale

When: 8 p.m. today through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday

Ends: Sunday

Price: $30 and $34; combined with 4-6 p.m. Sunday Victorian tea, $65

Contact: (818) 240-0910, Ext. 1

Running time: 80 minutes