Darker 'Alice' is Halloween treat

When little blond Alice fell down the rabbit hole, she introduced us to a whole new world filled with grinning cats, a Mad Hatter and a perpetually late rabbit.

Now, that already-upside-down world has been spun on its ear under the hands of local playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett, who has turned the classic fairy tale into a dark re-imagining for Plan-B Theatre Company's fifth and final radio hour, "Radio Hour: Alice."

"I kept the basic structure but tried to nudge it further into a nightmare," Bennett said in a phone interview.

"Take, for example the Cheshire Cat," Bennett said.

Noting that radio is dependent on description, Bennett has done away with the playfully grinning cat from the Disney movie. "In this version, he has rows and rows of teeth and a fat tick burrowing into his neck. I tried to up the fear factor," Bennett said.

Bennett has made other changes, too. "There are certain moments that read as very funny," he said, "and I decided to take it completely literally. If you take it literally, it's a lot scarier."

"For example, in the court scene, the Mad Hatter bites a piece from his tea cup," Bennett explained. "In the Disney cartoon, it's very funny — he's bumbling and nervous. But in this version, he bites it on purpose, which is a lot scarier, and there is blood pouring out of his mouth."

Once again, Plan-B's radio hour will be aired on KUER/XM Public Radio. The show features X96's Bill Allred and well as Jay Perry, Tobin Atkinson, Teresa Sanderson and 15-year-old Emma Munson as Alice.

The show is performed in traditional radio-hour style, with a studio audience, live sound effects and original music written and performed by Dave Evanoff.

"What Dave came with was almost a whole cinematic score that underlies the show," Bennett said. "I was blown away. It's so much richer and really elevated it from a theater project to a real radio show."

"I recorded a rehearsal so that I could listen to it, to get a feel for the actors as they did their roles," Evanoff said in a phone interview, "and with modern technology and my computer, I'm playing strings, winds, percussion and guitars all at the same time."

Evanoff, who has composed several film scores, thousands of jingles and music for half-time shows and the like, said Bennett has done a great job.

"The script is modern and full of great humor as well as terror and horror, it's a classic."