Noah Crandell, Brandon Brooks and Helena Scholz-Carlson as Calvin O’Keefe, Charles Wallace Murry and Margaret “Meg†Murry in A Wrinkle in Time at Children’s Theatre Company. Photo by Dan Norman.
The Children’s Theatre Company’s fall offering for the grade-school set is a staging of the popular Madeleine L’Engle’s science fiction fantasy, A Wrinkle in Time.
This production plays on a relatively simple unit set with well-placed levels, saving the wizardry for lights and sound and choosing instead to rely on good old-fashioned, well-executed creative dramatics techniques. This not only worked to create the story’s  “other-world†environment,  it also kept us grounded in the play’s ultimate message about humanity.
Following the strange appearance of Mrs. Whatsit (Autumn Ness) young teen, Meg Murry (Helena Scholz-Carlson) and her younger brother, Charles Wallace (Brandon Brooks), set out to find their lost father (Pearce Bunting). With the help of their new pal, Calvin (Noah Crandell), Mrs. Whatsit and the equally odd Mrs. Who (Ann Michels), they travel via “a wrinkle in time†to another world controlled by the evil It, and as Calvin observes, “in a horror movie, nothing good was ever named ‘It.’†Mrs. Whatsit gives each child a charm, which is nothing more than a push to use the gifts they already have. We know, of course, that it will take all three “charms†if they are to succeed.
The children in this story are the “stars,†and in this production Scholz-Carlson and Brooks are clearly the stars, as well, showing amazing focus, consistency and depth for ones so young. Part of the interest, also, is watching the adult actors appear and reappear as completely different characters. You won’t believe the cast is so small!
Scenic design by Joseph Stanley borrowed heavily from Louise Nevelson’s work in monochromatic assemblage; the establishment of time, place and mood for this production is beautifully accomplished with lighting (Rebecca Fuller Jensen), sound and video (Victor Zupanc, Joseph Stanley and Eric Van Wyk).
My seven-year-old companion, who knew the book, announced that nothing was as he saw it in his imagination, except for Charles Wallace, but when his dad told him that this was someone else’s imagination, it proved to be a satisfactory explanation. I thought the depiction of a rather clinical brain was a little out of place, but he was quite taken with the whole concept.
The appeal for children in this story is so basic and true: there is hope, there is something you can do, and love really can conquer all, even (and maybe most especially) in the lives of children. “We’re just kids,†Meg says. “We’re not stars.†The double meaning, the paradox, the impossibility all work to send an empowering message to a young audience.
A Wrinkle in Time runs through Sun., Dec. 4.