In Bakersfield College’s production of Dennis Snee’s play “Alice in Americaland,” a satirical, updated version of the Lewis Carroll classic, “Alice in Wonderland,” Alice sings Mick Jagger’s “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” is accused of being a shoplifter, encounters a rabbit who fears a nuclear holocaust, and engages in dialogue with the Cheshire Cat who plays an obnoxious reporter.
Cast members say “Alice in Americaland” is a wild romp through the vortex of the cathode ray and a condemnation of the lies foisted and perpetuated by a corporate-backed media, rampant consumerism, and narcissism as well as the fatuous jingoism found in American culture.
The play is finally punctuated by an anti-xenophobic ending.
BC professor Kimberly Chin directs the play.
“This play is about the absurdity of American culture,” said cast member Todd Beckey, 25, and a BC biology major.
Beckey plays the “mouthpiece of corporate America,” or more specifically, he plays a tuxedoed man with a huge lipstick-covered pair of lips where the head should be.
Before meeting the bizarre array of characters, Alice (Claire Moles) enters the transmogrified world of Americaland through a T.V. screen monitor instead of tumbling through a looking glass.
While searching for her way back, she runs into a hookah-smoking, “om”-chanting caterpillar (Miguel Torres) intermittently inserting insights between absurdities, a horny, consumer-advocate Mock Turtle (Joushya Cole), a red-necked Tweedle Dum (Sara Tielsch) and Tweedle Dee (Kristan Lanza), and a career-oriented Duchess with a type “A” personality and a heart condition (Stephanie Hankinson) among others.
Some cast members feel that the character Alice, as shown in the Snee play, is somewhat chastised for her suburban housewife’s complacent consumerism.
Her complacency is typical of most Americans, especially in relation to the media and consumerism.
Cast members feel that the play warns people about living and functioning as mere consumers and not as human beings.
Many cast members consider the production a diatribe against the mindless pleasure Americans take in the media, and some express a severe distaste for the media obsession of others.
“I don’t give a shit about pictures of Paris Hilton flashing her vagina,” said cast member Bryce Skidmore (Duke), 21, and a UC Berkeley-bound BC student in liberal studies.
“You have no idea how tired I am of people who talk about the latest episode of ‘American Idol’ as if it’s the most important part of their lives.”
Some cast members believe that the media holds some people in a state of arrested adolescence and immaturity; the media presents models that perpetuate juvenile behavior.
According to cast member Quincy Sloan (White Knight), Alice has to make the descent into the T.V. maelstrom and fend off the symbols of American hypocrisy and absurdity in order to make her successful transformation from dependent infantile consumer who never questions the media or the government, to a mature and analytical adult.
“This play shows her (Alice’s) transition,” said Sloan, 35, and an active Bakersfield Fire Department captain.
“It takes her as far as she has to go to find her own way,” he said.
According to Chin, the play’s writer seeks to encourage viewers to be more analytical of America.
Chin says the play calls upon the consumer to quit being passive, go beyond the box and become not only more analytical but also iconoclastic and to purge the vile hypocrisy in American government and culture.
“This play is about looking at our government and culture and asking questions. Look into America’s flaws to correct them,” Chin said.
The play continues May 10-12.