East Van Panto: Alice in Wonderland gives the topsy-turvy fairy tale a sassy update
Writer Sonja Bennett re-creates Commercial Drive through the eyes of a modernized protagonist
Dawn Petten is a feisty Alice in writer Sonja Bennett’s East Van Panto: Alice in Wonderland. Photo by Tim Matheson
The Cultch and Theatre Replacement present East Van Panto: Alice in Wonderland at the York Theatre and online from November 26 to January 2, 2022.
IN EAST VAN PANTO: Alice in Wonderland, the SkyTrain is the rabbit hole, and it leads the titular character to the area that playwright Sonja Bennett has envisioned as this city’s own wonderland: Grandview-Woodland, the East Vancouver neighbourhood anchored by Commercial Drive. Just like in Lewis Carroll’s fantasy, things just get curiouser and curiouser from there, but Bennett has given Alice a decidedly different edge from the 1865 novel.
“I liked the idea of reimagining something that I felt needed an update as a creative challenge,” Bennett says in a phone interview with Stir. “Alice is a very passive character in the book and in the Disney movie. She wanders around Wonderland and things happen to her, and I was very excited about the challenge to make Alice an active character and a young girl with agency that was causing things to happen.
“I’m taking the ingredients of Alice in Wonderland but giving it a shape and a protagonist that feels modern,” she says. “Just because of the nature of fairy tales, a lot of the young protagonists are quite-wide eyed, full of wonder, and I like the idea of creating a character of what a 10-year-old means to me, which is, they’re pre-teens, basically—they’re sassy and rebellious already….I see them wanting to be older than they are. I wanted to bring in that flavour of what a child really looks like these days.”
Now in its ninth iteration, the seasonal production presented by the Cultch and Theatre Replacement has a different theme each year and has become an annual tradition for many Vancouverites. A mother of two kids aged 11 and eight, Bennett recalls what a blast her family had the first time they went to see it, having previously shelled out big bucks for a “really fancy show” elsewhere that her little guy found boring after 10 minutes. “Then we went to Panto, and he was shouting, cheering, booing, and standing up, and they were throwing things into the audience, and he turned to me when the play was done and said ‘I didn’t know a play could be like that!’ It was such a magical experience.”
Directed by Meg Roe, this year’s romp stars Dawn Petten, Amanda Sum, Mark Chavez, Ghazal Azarbad, and Raugi Yu, with East Vancouver singer-songwriter and long-time Panto composer Veda Hille writing the score. Bennett didn’t have to think twice when the opportunity came her way, and not simply because the 2021 edition marks the first time the script has been written by a woman. For one thing, Bennett has lived in East Van for 15 years and was excited about being able to re-create the Drive through the eyes of her spunky Alice.
“It’s bursting with creativity,” Bennett says. “It’s colourful and vibrant and you’ve got people Hula Hooping in the park and old Italian men playing bocce ball; there’s the diversity. I also feel like it’s a very friendly part of Vancouver and has a neighbourly feel with all the coffee shops. I’ve spent a decade writing in Continental Coffee. Sometimes I get into the coffee shop and they’ve already made my coffee because they spotted me crossing the street. It’s such a lovely feeling.”
Sonja Bennett. Photo by Charles Zuckermann
The Panto role also gave Bennett the chance to break into writing for theatre, building on her passion for the written word in general. Having studied at Studio 58, Bennett initially pursued acting for film and television. In 2010, she took up screenwriting, going on to write Preggoland, which had a theatrical release in 2015 with James Caan and Danny Trejo in lead roles opposite herself. Preggoland earned numerous nods, including best BC film by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, best screenplay at the Fargo film festival, and Leo nominations for best actress, screenplay, and film. She then shifted her attention to writing for television, with projects including Kim’s Convenience, which won a Leo for best screenwriting in a comedy, and Letterkenny for Crave/Hulu (nominated for Writer’s Guild of Canada Award and two-time recipient of Leo for best screenwriting in a comedy). She’s now in her third season writing for GlobalTV’s Family Law.
“My intention with Preggoland wasn’t to become a writer; it was really to launch my acting career,” Bennett says. “But I fell in love with writing. It safeguarded my future not in the way I had intended….The best thing about being a writer as opposed to an actor is I can do it whenever I want. There’s no waiting by the phone. You have so much more agency as a writer to create; I don’t have to meet anybody or be anywhere to do it.
“The lifestyle suits me. I’m in sweatpants right now, which I enjoy,” she says with a laugh. “I think I’m good at it. I’m a better writer than I ever was an actor, but it’s a lot of same skill sets are the same. It’s storytelling.”
Bennett is already onboard to write next year’s Panto. And there’s another reason she didn’t hesitate to join the beloved show’s crew.
“I wanted to be part of it because it’s a magical thing; it’s like an institution,” Bennett says. “To be invited to be part of something that I enjoy as a consumer was really exciting. Also, I have a huge creative crush on Veda Hille. I have for years. The idea of collaborating with her was a huge draw for me. She’s a genius. My kids went to the same school as her son, so I’d see her on the schoolyard… Collaborating with her and watching her work has been really fun and just really filled me up,” she says, before adding with a laugh: “Basically, I did the Panto because I wanted to be friends with her.”
In fact, Bennett and Roe, who are friends outside of work and who go camping with a group of families every year, even ended up inviting Hille to join them at their campsite to workshop the play this past summer. Bennett notes: “That’s what this process has been like: just dumb delightful.”
For more information, see https://thecultch.com/event/east-van-panto/.
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