“[W]e’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
The Cheshire Cat, Lewis Carroll,
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Have you ever shrunk to three inches tall and asked questions of a caterpillar? Have you ever grown a mile high and tangled with a pack of playing cards? Have you ever been a guest at the maddest tea party known to man-and-rabbitkind? Well, no look no further. Master Mystery Productions is handing you the key to Wonderland to celebrate our very merry 10th unbirthday and the 160th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s magical, whimsical story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But we’ve added our own little mysterious twist to this already twisted tale for our 38th MMP show we titled…
MALICE IN WONDERLAND
After an excellent game of chess, Alice is to be promoted to queen as she has successfully maneuvered to the eighth rank on the Looking-Glass chessboard. A mad tea party has been prepared in her honor to celebrate her coronation. Or is it her trial? You see, the special jam tarts baked especially for her coronation have been stolen! And Alice is in a real jam when she’s caught literally red-handed! Accused of high treason for the crime of spoiling her dinner, Alice must stand trial in a wacky courtroom filled with even wackier witnesses from her Wonderland days. With the audience as her jury, Alice must plead her innocence before the judge rules a sentence before the verdict. Is it off with her head, or will she go off her head? In a magical, storybook location where the clock is always at teatime, the rules are better read backwards, and the characters are more than a little mad, Malice in Wonderland will keep you on your toes and constantly guessing as accusations, confessions, and heads fly. With games to play and enchanted places to explore, by the end of the night, you just might believe six impossible things before breakfast.
Malice in Wonderland originally began life in 2019. MMP Founder, Daniel Stallings, met with the Red Rock Books owner to discuss ideas for future productions after the performance of Foul Play. They discussed popular, public domain works of literature to adapt into an interactive mystery. Bringing stories to life is one of our passions, and there’s no better place than a bookstore to animate our favorite tales of wonder. The owner mentioned how important Lewis Carroll’s seminal Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was to her. It made a perfect setting for whimsy and a full, magical makeover of our favorite store. We wanted to bring the Wonderland of the pages to a full three-dimensional universe. We planned to debut the production in Summer 2020, but the pandemic lockdowns postponed that dream. Until now…
Malice in Wonderland was also a chance to promote a new playwright and director to the MMP family. Hall of Fame Artist Devanne Fredette, our longest serving active member of the company with a staggering eighteen shows to her credit, not only served as co-writer for the production since its inception in 2019 but also is making her directorial debut. Devanne’s skill with nuanced acting, love of fairy tales, understanding of story, artistic pedigree as a painter and illustrator–allowing her to understand character through gesture and body language–and her multi-award-winning history with MMP as an actress, assistant director, scenic artist, and more makes her a logical candidate for promotion to full director at MMP. She joined forces with Hall of Fame Artist and author of How to Solve a Murder, Janis Kunz, to bring this exciting new tale to the Wonderland canon all the way to Ridgecrest. We are so excited and proud of both of them!
As befitting a big unbirthday celebration–and thanks to a jaw-dropping record turnout at auditions–we have TWO delightful casts for Malice in Wonderland. This time, we focused on a Youth Cast and an Adult Cast to allow as many of our talented actors involved as possible. Youth Cast will perform July 18 and 25. 2025. Adult Cast performs July 19 and 26. The story is exactly the same. Guests will be transported through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole into our storybook version of Wonderland. Past “Drink Me” bottles, floating furniture, and giant flowers and mushrooms, patrons will sit in the Queen of Hearts’ topiary courtyard (where someone has been painting the roses red) to hear the wild accusations (and even wilder due process) against Alice. Then it’s time for a tour of Wonderland to hear the characters’ testimonies. Guests will shrink to three inches tall to converse with Caterpillar and then grow fifty-feet-high to examine the evidence at the White Rabbit’s cottage. They’ll hear bickering chess queens, cheeky Cheshire cats, and the maddest tea party imaginable. Then at the most backwards, upside-down, right-side-up trial ever, the guests will need to cast their verdict: Is Alice guilty or not guilty? Come see this funny, family-friendly, silly, and spectacular production!
Malice in Wonderland performs July 18, 19, 25 and 26, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at Red Rock Books (206 W. Ridgecrest Blvd.). Youth Cast performs July 18th and 25th. Adult Cast performs July 19th and 26th. Tickets are $20 general admission, $10 for kids ages 10 to 5, and kids 4 and under are free. Tickets are sold through Red Rock Books. Seating will be provided for the show, but seating is limited and first come, first served. Doors open at 7 p.m. at all performances. For more information, visit Master Mystery Productions on Facebook and Instagram or mastermysteryproductions.com.
See you down the rabbit hole, everyone!
–Master Mystery Productions
Master Mystery Productions 