Review: Arena’s Wrinkle in Time Nails Emotion, Fumbles Fantasy
Arena's transporting musical reimagining of A Wrinkle in Time soars early, but stalls in a sluggish second act.
In the time-honored tradition of sci-fi fantasy about kids being whisked away to fantastical realms, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time starts with the kid in question feeling pretty miserable here on Earth. Thrilling adventure awaits, and happier days may lie ahead for the book’s young heroine, Meg Murry, but she’ll have to traverse much darkness to reach the light.
That somber phase of Meg’s journey is aptly reflected in Arena Stage’s world-premiere adaptation, featuring music and lyrics by Heather Christian and a book by Lauren Yee. Lee Sunday Evans, who recently staged Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things Off-Broadway to much acclaim, directs this atmospheric production starring Taylor Iman Jones (Broadway’s SIX) as Meg, a bright but indeed downhearted middle schooler.
Meg was born feeling at odds with the world, she sings in “Meg Inside Out,” the first of two heartfelt laments, along with “Always on My Guard,” expressing her many frustrations. She has plenty to be upset about, given that she generally feels misunderstood by everyone, including her Mother (Andrea Jones-Sojola).
Her physicist dad left the house one stormy night years ago and never returned. At school, she has to contend with sneers and gossip from classmates who spread rumors about her missing dad and sensitive younger brother Charles Wallace (Mateo Lizcano). And despite her amazing aptitude for math and science, her math teacher just gave her an “F” on an assignment for failing to show her work.
A kid can feel like they’re carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders, and Jones captures the gravity of Meg’s adolescent angst soundly, singing the role with vibrant character, yet restraint. Her Meg is sad but not self-pitying, preternaturally smart but still innocent, still open and curious despite living under a dark cloud of confusion.
The set, by the multi-disciplinary international design collective known as dots, colors Meg’s world in deep, saturated blues and reds, lit by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew to mirror the tale’s strong emotions. And Jones channels Meg’s tumultuous inner life persuasively through the music, which soars on sweeping strings and lush orchestrations by musical collective StarFish.
Likewise, Lizcano, portraying traumatized telepath Charles Wallace, pinpoints the boy’s unspoken yearning for connection beautifully in the loping, minor-key ode “What Is a Father.” Their dad’s been gone so long that Charles Wallace holds no memory of him, while Mother, left with naught but her memories, seems stuck in place.
This family could use a miracle, and luckily, divine intervention is on the way. First, Mrs. Whatsit (Amber Gray) blows in like a fierce but extremely friendly wind to inform Meg, enigmatically, “There is such a thing as a tesseract.” Gray, beaming serene, good-witch kindness, indeed blows in like a breath of fresh air.
Then appears Mrs. Who (Stacey Sargeant), just as friendly, her language laced with notable quotes from poetry, literature, and pop culture. Finally, the formidable Mrs. Which (Vicki Lewis) floats in to drop more knowledge, explaining that the three Mrs. W’s are stardust, angels, guardians, mothers, witches.
They can travel across time, space, and dimensions, via wrinkles in the fabric of existence called tesseracts. They can also help the siblings find their father, who, it turns out, is lost somewhere in the fifth dimension.
So they lead the pair, joined by Meg’s amorous schoolmate Calvin (Nicholas Barrón, in fine voice), on an intergalactic, interdimensional journey to rescue Father (Jon Patrick Walker), and restore some sense of wholeness to this fractured family.
Here is where the wonder and magic might kick in, and in elements of stagecraft and character design, the show delivers awesome surprises like a congregation of giant, furry beasts who commune with Meg on a distant planet. And Evans, who generally maintains the bare stage as a wide-open palette for interpreting myriad moods and locations, finds clever uses of the turntable stage and trap doors.
But, as Meg’s adventure takes her and her crew “tessering” from Earth to flowery Uriel to shadowy Camazotz, the show falters in its pacing. The direction stumbles over physically representing, without the use of stage effects, some of the magical or extra-sensory action.
Then, nearly the entire second act is given to a second rescue mission that feels stretched into an epic cycle of its own. One might feel stuck on the shadow planet with the Camazotzians, played by a pleasant ensemble, who provide gorgeous harmonies throughout, but not much distinct purpose or personality.
There’s more character in Meg’s melancholy, in the complicated reality of the Murrys’ lives at home, than in the dimension-hopping fantasy. In that sense, the show might peak too soon, but from that summit we can see a touching vision of this girl’s past, present, and future.
A Wrinkle in Time (★★★☆☆) runs through July 20 at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets are $69 to $209, with discount options available. Call 202-488-3300, or visit www.arenastage.org.
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